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Damaturu is in Nigeria's north-east. Google Maps

Six killed as 12-year-old girl used as a bomb

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bus park bombing but it bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram.

A CHILD BOMB killed six people outside a bus station in the heartland of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in northeastern Nigeria this morning.

Witnesses reported seeing a “young girl” approaching the station in the Yobe state capital Damaturu around 7am and refusing to be searched by security guards at the gate before blowing herself up.

“A private taxi… drove out of the park. As soon as the car came close, she detonated the explosives. Six people in the car were killed. She was also killed,” bystander Sani Dankamasho told AFP.

Reports said the bomber was aged around 12.

The attack came just hours after United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon wrapped up two-day a visit to Africa’s largest economy during which he hailed its “greater stability and peace” under its new leader as he commemorated a deadly 2011 attack on the global body by Boko Haram militants.

Police and witnesses reported a second attack 10 minutes after the bus park bombing, in which a suicide bomber managed only to kill himself and slightly wound a bystander on the outskirts of Damaturu.

“There were two suicide blasts in Damaturu today. The first one happened outside the motor park and the second one occurred in Pompomari on the outskirts of Damaturu. But only the bomber has died in the second blast,” said Toyin Gbadegesin, a spokesman for Yobe state police.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bus park bombing but it bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which has in recent weeks used young women to carry out bloody suicide attacks in the restive northeast.

Boko Haram has stepped up attacks in Yobe and two other states in its northeastern bastion since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power on May 29 amid a wave of optimism that he could tackle the worsening security situation.

© AFP 2015

Read: 300 rescued from Boko Haram, but none are the Chibok schoolgirls

Read: Explainer: What is Boko Haram and why can’t Nigeria stop them?

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    Aug 19th 2017, 8:59 PM

    I knew it was Venezuela because the women there are all Caracas.

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    Aug 19th 2017, 10:33 PM

    Never heard of some countries, never mind their capitals

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    Aug 19th 2017, 11:30 PM

    Eleven out of ten, Ex Garda

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    Aug 20th 2017, 12:11 AM

    @John Fairclough hahaha

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    Aug 19th 2017, 9:39 PM

    I knew Minsk wasn’t in Kazakhstan because Borat never mentioned it.

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    Aug 20th 2017, 3:37 PM

    @Paul Culligan: I knew it because David in Friends left Phoebe to go there!

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    Aug 19th 2017, 10:32 PM

    10 out of 10 !!! Only took me three goes too lol

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    Aug 19th 2017, 11:38 PM

    @Catherine Sims: does 3 goes mean 3 accounts??

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    Mute Robc
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    Aug 19th 2017, 11:39 PM

    @Robc: 6/10 for me btw

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    Mute Robc
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    Aug 19th 2017, 11:40 PM

    @Robc: it’ll only let me do it once

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    Mute Catherine Sims
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    Aug 20th 2017, 7:54 AM

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    Aug 19th 2017, 11:06 PM

    Ah ffs, hardest quiz ever

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    Aug 19th 2017, 8:49 PM

    Not bad… 6 correct.

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    Aug 19th 2017, 9:47 PM

    The sultan of Brunei can kiss my ring piece. 6

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    Aug 19th 2017, 9:04 PM

    7/10

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    Aug 19th 2017, 9:52 PM

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    Aug 19th 2017, 10:45 PM

    10/10 BOOOOOOMM!!!!!!

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    Aug 19th 2017, 10:01 PM

    3/10, woeful.

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    Aug 19th 2017, 10:20 PM

    9/10 ha ha. And I only got to do geography till my junior cert

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    Aug 19th 2017, 10:30 PM

    9/10

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    Aug 20th 2017, 2:28 AM

    10/10… Geographaledge! :p

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    Aug 20th 2017, 9:24 AM

    @Philip Pip Adams: ditto

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    Aug 21st 2017, 12:36 PM

    You scored 6 out of 10!
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    Flippin good.

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