A female suicide bomber blew herself and another bomber up near a police checkpoint in northeastern Nigeria, the epicentre of a seven-year Boko Haram terrorist group, authorities said.

One other suspected bomber survived the attack and is being questioned, said Victor Isuku, a police spokesman for the northeastern state of Borno.

“At 3:50am today, mobile police personnel on guard duty opposite the federal high court in Jiddari sighted three suspected suicide bombers comprising two females and a male running towards their sandbag,” Isuku said.

“They ordered them to a halt for questioning but they refused,” he said.

“In the process, one of the females detonated the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) strapped to her body, killing herself and one other male accomplice,” he said.

He said the female survivor was arrested and handed over to the military for interrogation, adding that bomb disposal experts were combing the area for undetonated explosives.

Boko Haram has killed at least 20,000 people and made more than 2.6 million homeless.

A sustained counter-offensive supported by a regional force has seen the Nigerian military retake swathes of territory from the gunmen, but the terrorist group still poses a security threat to civilians.

Source: AFP