Officials say three suicide bombers attacked a village in northeastern Nigeria Saturday, killing four people and wounding eight.
Authorities say the bombers — a man and two women — targeted the village of Umariri, near the city of Maiduguri, the heart of the seven-year-old insurgency by the Boko Haram militant group.
Victor Isuko, Borno state police spokesman, said the the bombers “detonated the IEDs [improvised explosives devices] strapped to their bodies while running to different directions.”
Officials say a vigilante and a woman with her two children were among the dead.
Ibrahim Abdulkadir, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency said the vigilante was trying to stop the bombers and “that was when he was engulfed by the bomb and the woman was nearby.”
No one immediately claimed responsibility, but the bombings are similar to previous ones carried out by Boko Haram.
Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamic State in northeastern Nigeria.
Over the past seven years, Boko Haram violence has displaced more than two million people and killed at least 20,000, according the the United Nations.
The militant group has recently stepped up attacks after a lull that lasted months due to a leadership struggle.
Since Boko Haram first took up arms against the Nigerian government in 2009, trade routes and farming activity have been disrupted.
Although Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has led a successful military campaign against the militant group since he assumed office, Boko Haram is still capable of executing deadly attacks.
The violence is not limited to northeastern Nigeria and has spilled over into Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
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