Female Suicide Bomber And Gunmen Kill Over 16 People In Borno

A female suicide bomber and Boko Haram gunmen killed 16 people in Nigeria as the commander of a new multinational force tasked with fighting the Islamists pledged on Friday to crush the insurgency "very soon".

Major General Iliya Abbah's appointment in an Abuja ceremony as chief of the 8 700-strong force came as a woman bomber on a tricycle killed six people in a busy market in Maiduguri, the largest city in Nigeria's restive north-eastern Borno state.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who won the election in March this year on a promise to defeat the jihadists, said Friday the new task force would "lead to the speedy defeat and elimination of Boko Haram", according to a statement.

Meanwhile reports emerged that the jihadists had struck neighbouring Yobe state, killing at least 10 people including two women on Wednesday evening in a revenge attack against local vigilantes, a local official told AFP on Friday.