Suicide bomber attacks Nigeria's Maiduguri market

A female suicide bomber attacked a cattle market in Maiduguri northeastern Nigeria, the city worst hit by Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency, police and a witness said.

The police said that the female bomber was the only one dead during the attack that took place on Monday morning.

In a statement, police said a second woman who had a bomb was “lynched by an irate mob in the vicinity”. Security forces later detonated her device.

The incident comes less than 24 hours after Christmas and two days after President Muhammadu Buhari praised the military for capturing the jihadist group’s key camp, which is regarded as Boko Haram’s last enclave.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack but it bears the hallmarks of Boko Haram

Despite having been pushed back to the forest by the army in recent months, the group still stages bombings in the northeast and in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.