On Tuesday a suicide bombing attack rocked a Nigerian marketplace in Maiduguri, killing at least 34. Musa Danbaba, a member of a civilian protection militia in Maiduguri, said the explosion went off near the Old Elkanemi Cinema and that 34 bodies were found. He continued saying that many more people were injured.

 

Credit for the attack has not been claimed by anyone or any particular group, but the number one suspect in this case is Boko Haram, a Nigerian based Islamic extremist terrorist group. Details of this attack show consistent with previous attacks conducted by Boko Haram. The suicide bombing on Tuesday was carried out by a teenage girl, believed to be around 16 years of age. This wouldn’t be the first time Boko Haram has used teenage girls as pawns in their attacks, and it wouldn’t be the first time they attacked the marketplace in Maiduguri. Another suicide bombing took place there on Saturday, killing 54 people.

 

Boko Haram has been waging a war against the people of the area and trying to impose sharia (Muslim law) in Nigeria. The group has recently pledged their allegiance to the leader of the very active IS (Islamic State) terrorist group, who has named himself the Caliph of Muslims. Boko Haram had already been following in IS footsteps, declaring their own caliphate in Nigeria and publishing their own execution videos of anyone they say is in defiance of Islam. The style of the execution videos even mimics that of IS – the sound of a beating heart and rapid breathing immediately precede each moment of execution.