No fewer than seven persons  were  killed today when a  female suicide bomber detonated an Improvised explosive Device (IED) in Maiduguri, Borno State.

Several others were injured in the incident.

An eyewitness said the explosion occurred at 12:00 noon near a bus station in the city.

The victims were said to  among women and children arriving  Maiduguri seeking to escape Boko Haram violence in the  rural town of Dikwa, 90 kms away.

Mohammed Kanar, a local coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said the blast happened on Sunday morning as the group arrived from Dikwa.

Maiduguri has repeatedly been attacked by Boko Haram and the latest bloodshed again underlines the threat posed by the Islamist group, which has been launching guerrilla-style attacks since being pushed out of its captured territory and camps by a Nigerian army offensive.

“The IDPs (interally displaced persons), mostly women and children, were stopped for security checks at the checkpoint when the bomber, disguised as an IDP, sneaked in amongst them before setting off her explosives,” he told AFP.

“Eight people were killed and seven others were injured in the incident.”

Army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman gave the same account and toll.

There has been a wave of suicide and home-made bomb attacks against civilians in urban areas recently, particularly Maiduguri, which in October alone was hit six times, killing at least 54 people.

On Saturday, four teenage girls blew themselves up in a village near Fotokol, in Cameroon’s far north region near the border with Nigeria, killing five, including a traditional chief.

Similar attacks have happened in Chad and Niger.