After days of razing villages and pitiless massacre, Boko Haram finished the week with its most chilling atrocity.
As people bustled through the Saturday market in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, a device borne by a ten year-old girl exploded near the entrance.
A witness said the girl probably had no idea that a bomb had been strapped to her body.
The explosion just before lunch killed 20, including the girl, and injured 18, according to the police.
Boko Haram did not immediately claim the attack, but the Islamic insurgents have increasingly used young girls as human bombs as they carve an African “Caliphate” from the plains of northern Nigeria.
Today, Boko Haram controls about 20,000 square miles of territory - an area the size of Belgium.
Within this domain, the black flag of jihad flies over scores of towns and villages scattered across the neighbouring states of Borno and Yobe.
The latest conquest was the fishing town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad, which fell to the Islamists last Wednesday. » | David Blair | Saturday, January 10, 2015
