More than 60 people have been killed in a twin suicide bomb attack at a camp in northern Nigeria for people displaced by an insurgency of the Boko Haram group, the Nigerian military says.
The attack took place 85 kilometres outside the capital of Borno state, centre of the seven-year insurgency, an official said.
The state emergency management agency reported a death toll of at least 35, saying 78 were injured.
Authorities said the attack took place on Tuesday, but a breakdown in the telephone system had prevented the information being made public earlier.
Emergency officials and a military source said two female suicide bombers made their way into an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp and detonated themselves in the middle of it.
No group claimed responsibility but the attack bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which has frequently used female bombers and even children to hit targets.
The militant group has recently increased the frequency and deadliness of attacks with three at the end of January.
At least 65 people were killed outside Borno state capital Maiduguri on January 31.
Since it lost territory to a government counter-offensive last year, Boko Haram has reverted to hit-and-run attacks on villages and suicide bombings at places of worship or markets.
Boko Haram has only rarely targeted camps housing people displaced by the conflict and Tuesday's attack was the first one to kill victims in Borno state.
The military said militants made one abortive attempt on a camp on the outskirts of Maiduguri on January 31.
Boko Haram hit a Nigerian IDP camp for the first time last September, in the Adamawa state capital of Yola.
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source : AFP
Thursday
11 February 2016
10:13:58 AM
734438
More than 60 people have been killed in a twin suicide bomb attack at a camp in northern Nigeria for people displaced by an insurgency of the Boko Haram group, the Nigerian military says.