DHAKA: A suspected female suicide bomber has killed at least 17 people in Maiduguri, capital of Nigeria’s Borno state.

The military and hospital sources said the attacked happened on Tuesday, three days after a multiple bomb attack in the city killed more than 50 people, reports the Al Jazeera.

Citing a military source said a loud blast rocked Maiduguri just after 4pm local time (15:00 GMT) and that the bomber detonated her device at a roundabout near the Monday Market, which has seen numerous attacks before.

Maiduguri is the birthplace of Boko Haram, which has been fighting for six years to enforce Islamic law in all 36 states of Nigeria, which is roughly equally divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a mainly Christian south.

The latest attack came after the government in Abuja described the fighters’ pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as a sign of weakness in the face of growing military pressure from Nigeria and its allies.

BDST: 1814 HRS, MAR 11, 2015