Nigeria suicide bomb attack: 15 dead in attack on city in northern Nigeria

A suicide bomb attack has left 15 people dead and around 50 injured in northern Nigeria.

The blast, set off by a female suicide bomber, in the northeastern city of Damataru at around 9.30am local time came less than a week after a suicide bomber killed three policeman at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city.

A spokesman for the police, Toyin Gbadegasin said: "Fifteen people have been confirmed dead so far and more dead bodies are being brought to the hospital."

So far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack but it is the latest in a string of attacks which “bear the hallmarks” of Boko Haram, Reuters has reported.

Earlier this month, a 10 year old girl was believed by Nigerian military figures to have helped carry out a suicide attack on Muslim worshippers in the city celebrating Eid which killed 12.

The Islamist group came to worldwide attention when they kidnapped 300 girls from a boarding school in Chibok last year but have been carrying out attacks on the region since 2002.

Last year they were able to control huge swathes of territory the size of Belgium in Yobe, where Damataru is the state capital, and Borno states but were pushed back by Nigerian forces with help from Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Former president Goodluck Jonathan’s seeming reluctance or inability to do something to stop the group has been seen as the reason for his defeat at the hands of Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari won huge swathes of the north and centre of the country in April’s election by promising to “spare no effort” to fight them.

But militants have since upped their attacks in recent months as part of an attempted resurgence.

Additional reporting by Reuters