Two explosions ripped through the Farm Centre market in northern Nigeria’s biggest city, Kano, shortly after 4pm with one of the bombers said to be aged just 11 and the other 18.
Islamist terror group Boko Haram has previously used young girls as human bombs in its six-year insurgency in north-east Nigeria that has left at least 17,000 dead and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
In July 2014, Kano was hit four times in the space of a week by a spate of young female suicide bombers whom experts say are unlikely to be willing participants to the carnage.
“A minibus carrying some women came to the Farm Centre GSM market and dropped off one girl aged about 11 and another aged about 18, both wore the hijab,” said a Kano police spokesman.
“One went inside the market, the other stayed outside. Then they exploded, killing themselves and others nearby,” he told AFP.
“The victims were taken to hospital and it was later confirmed that 15 people died, not including the suicide bombers.”
The attacks came after at least 32 people were killed in a bomb blast in Yola, north-east Nigeria, on Tuesday night that also bore the hallmarks of the Islamist rebels.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who has given his military commanders until next month to crush the militants, described both attacks as “barbaric” and “cowardly”.
He called for increased vigilance to stop further attacks against “soft” targets and said the government was “very much determined to wipe out Boko Haram in Nigeria” and bring perpetrators to book.
“Nigeria’s reinvigorated, well-equipped and well-motivated armed forces and security agencies [will] overcome Boko Haram very soon,” he added.
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