At Least 18 People Killed in Multiple Suicide Bombings in Nigeria

At least 18 people were killed and dozens of others were wounded in a series of suicide bombings on Saturday afternoon in northeastern Nigeria, including at the wedding of a young couple and at a funeral, according to local officials.

Barkindo Saidu, the director general of Borno State’s emergency management agency, said that three female attackers had struck distinct locations in Gwoza, a bustling city in Borno State that has been the center of Islamist insurgency by Boko Haram over the past 15 years.

The victims included children and pregnant women, Mr. Saidu said. Some Nigerian news outlets reported that at least 30 people had been killed.

As of Sunday afternoon, no group had claimed responsibility for the bombings. The blasts resembled attacks carried out by Boko Haram, whose fighters have killed tens of thousands in Nigeria and whose aggression in the region has led to the displacement of more than two million people.

The first attacker on Saturday detonated a bomb that she was wearing at a wedding celebration, Mr. Saidu said in a preliminary report seen by The New York Times. Seven people died in that explosion, including the attacker and a baby she had with her, according to Kenneth Daso, a public relations officer with the police in Borno. Two attackers struck later near a hospital and at the funeral services of a victim of the earlier blast, Mr. Saidu said.

Among the seven people killed in the explosion at the wedding were three men, a high school teacher, an entrepreneur and a bicycle seller, said Baba Shehu Saidu, a friend of theirs and of the groom who said that he had planned to attend the wedding but had had to cancel at the last minute.