Nigeria market blast: At least 16 dead in Maiduguri

At least 16 people have been killed and several injured by a bomb attack in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, medics say.

Some reports say that the market explosion was triggered by a girl suicide bomber who may have been as young as 10 years old.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack.

However correspondents say that all the signs point to the militant Islamist Boko Haram group.

The market is reported to have been targeted twice in a week by female bombers late last year.

Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin said that the girl suicide bomber let off an improvised explosive device near the area of the market where chickens were sold.

Hundreds of people were killed on Wednesday in an assault by Boko Haram militants on the town of Baga, following on their seizure of a key military base there on 3 January,

Scores of bodies from that attack - described by Amnesty International aspossibly the "deadliest massacre" in the history of Boko Haram - are reported to remain strewn in the bush.

District head Baba Abba Hassan said most victims in the Baga attack were children, women or elderly people who were not able to escape when insurgents forced their way into the town by firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.

"The human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous,'' Muhammad Abba Gava, a spokesman for a civilian defence group that fights Boko Haram told the Associated Press .

Boko Haram launched a military campaign in 2009 to create an Islamic state.

It has taken control of many towns and villages in north-eastern Nigeria in the last year.

The conflict has displaced at least 1.5 million people, while more than 2,000 were killed last year.

Some 10,0000 people have fled to Chad over the last week to escape the violence, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis, officials say.

Others are fleeing to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, in buses provided by the government.

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan speaks during the flag-off for his campaign for a second-term in office, in Lagos on 8 January 2015

Mr Jonathan is under pressure over the insurgency

President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno and two neighbouring states in 2013, vowing to defeat the militants.

However, Boko Haram has stepped up attacks since then and there are fears that many people in the north-east will not be able to vote in the forthcoming general election because of the conflict.

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