Five teenage suicide bombers kill at least 12 people in Nigeria and Cameroon

Five girl suicide bombers have killed at least 12 people in Nigeria and Cameroon over weekend, officials have said.

Police blamed the Islamist group Boko Haram for the attacks, in which the bombers also died.

One girl detonated explosives strapped to her body on Sunday evening at a military checkpoint guarding an entry to the north-east city of Maiduguri,Nigeria, they said. She killed herself and seven other passengers who got off a bus to be searched. A dozen people were also injured.

It was the first suicide bombing in nearly a month in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram.

Cameroon said on Monday that four teenage suicide bombers had killed themselves and a family of five when they were stopped by self-defence fighters in that Fotokol town, near the border with Nigeria.

The Nigerian military has destroyed several Boko Haram camps recently.