ABUJA   -   At least 18 people have been killed and 30 injured in a se­ries of deadly blasts in Nigeria thought to have been carried out by female suicide bombers. One of the bombings is reported to have killed six people and in­jured others at a wedding cer­emony on Saturday, in the north­eastern Borno state. The state’s emergency management agency said the co-ordinated attacks targeted a wedding, the victims’ subsequent funeral and a hospi­tal in the town of Gwoza.

President Bola Tinubu con­demned the attacks calling them “desperate acts of terror” in a statement shared by his media aide on Facebook. He vowed stern action against those re­sponsible for the killings in the town of Gwoza and insisted that the incident had not undermined recent gains made against jihad­ists. “The president declares that the purveyors of wanton violence shall have a certain encounter with justice, and that these cow­ardly attacks are only but an iso­lated episode as his government will not allow the nation to slith­er into an era of fear, tears, sor­row, and blood,” it read.

No-one has claimed responsi­bility for the attacks, but the Nige­ria-centred Islamic State West Af­rica Province (ISWAP) insurgents have previously claimed deadly bombings in Borno. In the last four months, attackers have twice targeted people through suicide and improvised explosive devices in Borno state. Borno state has been at the centre of a 15-year in­surgency by Boko Haram Islamist militants, which has displaced more than two million people and killed more than 40,000.

Boko Haram gained interna­tional notoriety in 2014 when it kidnapped more than 270 school­girls from the town of Chibok, also in Borno state. Authorities said 18 deaths had been confirmed on Sat­urday, a toll that included children, adults and pregnant women. Some local media have reported a much higher toll - Nigeria’s Vanguard and This Day newspapers said at least 30 had been killed in the blasts. A curfew has been imposed by the military. Amnesty Interna­tional Nigeria called for an end to assaults on civilians in Borno on X. “These deplorable attacks that took place at a time people were mourning demonstrate complete disregard for human life,” it said. Gwoza was seized by Boko Ha­ram in 2014, and taken back by the Nigerian forces in 2015 - but the group has since continued to carry out attacks and kidnappings near the town.