MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — For the first time since 2020, three female suicide bombers attacked the Nigerian border town of Gwoza, where Boko Haram extremists declared a short-lived caliphate 10 years ago, signaling that the world's longest war on militancy is still ongoing.
This came two days after officials touted success in their war against extremists, with Nigeria's military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Edward Buba telling reporters the often-used phrase: ''We have greatly degraded the terrorists.''
The first of the three coordinated suicide bombings on June 30 targeted a well-attended wedding, the second was detonated at the victims' funeral and the the third at a hospital attending to the injured.
At least 32 people in total were killed in the attacks, including nine family members and friends of Mohammed Kehaya, a resident who is now worried about his safety in the state of Borno, a hotbed of Islamic militancy, where extremists once kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in 2014.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but blame quickly fell on Boko Haram, which since 2009 has launched an insurgency to establish its radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in northeastern Nigeria. They have since splintered into different factions, together accounting for the direct deaths of at least 35,000 people and the displacement of more than 2 million amid a humanitarian crisis with people in dire need of foreign aid.
Still, Nigerian authorities maintained that the attacks were not a ''setback.''
Nigeria's Defense Chief Gen. Chris Musa said the bombings were rather ''a sign of desperation'' and described them as a one-off by the militants. ''Some individuals would do everything possible for us not to succeed,'' he said.
However, several security analysts and locals interviewed about the bombings echoed concerns that the attacks must have taken a lot of planning and coordination and portend danger in Borno, where some villages lack security presence.
