Three teenage girls suspected of planning a triple suicide bomb attack in a town frequently targeted by Boko Haram have been shot dead, a local government official said on Thursday.

Civilian vigilantes opened fire on the trio near the town of Madagali when they refused to stop for a security check, the town council’s chairman, Yusuf Muhammad, told AFP.

“Explosives strapped to two of the girls exploded from the impact of the shooting, while those on the third girl were defused by soldiers,” he added.

Boko Haram extremists have regularly used young women and girls as human bombs in a nearly eight-year insurgency, which has left at least 20,000 people dead and made more than 2.6 million homeless.

Source: AFP