#News: Two Suspected Child Suicide Bombers Hit Northeast Nigeria Town

[HuffingtonPost]

(Adds context, attack on Goodluck Jonathan presidential  campaign organization)                

By Joe Hemba                

DAMATURU, Nigeria, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Two suspected child  suicide bombers blew themselves up in a market in northeast  Nigeria on Sunday, witnesses said, killing three people in the  second apparent attack in two days using young girls strapped  with explosives.                

The blasts struck around mid-afternoon at an open market  selling mobile handsets in the town of Potiskum in Yobe state,  which has frequently been attacked by the Sunni Muslim jihadist  group Boko Haram.                

A trader at the market, Sani Abdu Potiskum, said the bombers  were about 10 years old. "I saw their dead bodies. They are two  young girls of about 10 years of age ... you only see the  plaited hair and part of the upper torso," the trader said.                

A source at the Potiskum general hospital said three people  had been killed, excluding the bombers, while 46 were injured.                

The town was hit by a suicide bomber in November when at  least 48 people, mainly students, were killed during a school  assembly. On Saturday, a bomb exploded at a police station in  Potiskum.                

Sunday's explosions came a day after a bomb strapped to a  girl aged around 10 years old exploded in a busy market place in  the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least 16 people and  injuring more than 20, security sources said.                

Boko Haram has been waging a five year insurgency to  establish an Islamic state in the northeast of the country and  the army's inability to quash the movement is a headache for  President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election in  February.                

Last year more than 10,000 people died in the violence,  according to an estimate by the Council on Foreign Relations                

The military lost ground in worst-hit Borno state last  weekend after insurgents took over the town of Baga and nearby  army base, killing over 100 people and forcing thousands to  flee. The defense headquarters said on Saturday that the army  was regrouping to retake the area.                

In the city of Jos in Plateau state, Jonathan's campaign  team was hit by two days of violence.                

The driver of a campaign vehicle was killed on Sunday by  youths who also set fire to a police station, police spokesman  Abu Sunday Emmanuel said. On Saturday, two other campaign  vehicles were burnt.                

"The youths were chanting no PDP, no to Jonathan Badluck," a  witness said, referring to the ruling People's Democratic Party.                                

PDP spokesman Olisa Metuh said in an emailed statement that  the government "decried last Saturday's unprovoked attack on  President Goodluck Jonathan's campaign vehicles in Jos.     (Additional reporting by Ardo Abdullah in Bauchi, Buhari Bello  in Jos and Camillus Eboh in Abuja, Writing by Julia Payne;  Editing by Dominic Evans)
Source: huffingtonPost