Twin suicide bombings kill scores at Nigeria refugee camp

Mass burials were held in Nigeria on Wednesday after two female suicide bombers detonated explosives in a northeastern refugee camp the day before, killing at least 56 people, local officials said.

An emergency management official said 51 bodies were buried in the town of Dikwa, the scene of the carnage some 50 miles northeast of Maiduguri, capital of Borno State. The bodies of five others remain in hospital.

Health and rescue workers said the attack on Tuesday also injured 78 people. News of the bombings was not reported earlier due to poor telephone service.

Though no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, officials suspect that the armed group Boko Haram, which originated in Borno State, is responsible. The group has been attacking soft targets, increasingly with suicide bombers, since Nigeria’s military last year drove them out of towns and villages in the northeast.

The targeted camp houses an estimated 50,000 Nigerians displaced because of Boko Haram’s 6-year insurgency against the state. The conflict has so far killed an estimated 20,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

The armed group became internationally known after it kidnapped at least 200 female students in April of 2014 from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok. Most of the kidnapped students were never rescued, and Boko Haram has continued sporadic raids on the area — including the torching of a village near Chibok this month.

Officials on Wednesday said a third would-be bomber was arrested before she could detonate her explosives at the camp on Tuesday. She has reportedly provided officials with information about other planned attacks in the area, sparking an increase in security.

Al Jazeera and Reuters