Two girls blow themselves up in a suicide bomb attack at a market in Nigeria

Two seven-year-old girls have blown themselves up in a suicide bomb attack at a market in Nigeria.

The explosions in the Maiduguri, which lies in the Boko Haram stronghold of Borno state, killed both the girls and one other person, while 18 were left injured.

Boko Haram are believed to be behind the attack, but they are yet to claim responsibility.

The jihadists routinely use women and girls to carry out suicide attacks.

Borno Governor Kashim Shettima, visiting victims in the hospital, confirmed the toll in the attack.

A member of the Maiduguri militia said he saw the girls immediately before the explosion.

'They got out of a rickshaw and walked right in front of me without showing the slightest sign of emotion,' he said.

'I tried to speak with one of them, in Hausa and in English, but she didn't answer. I thought they were looking for their mother,' he added.

'She headed toward the poultry sellers, and then detonated her explosives belt.'

Boko Haram jihadists have laid waste to northeast Nigeria since they took up arms against the government in 2009.

At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than two and a half million more displaced by the unrest.

Rights groups say thousands of women and girls have been abducted by the group. In the most infamous incident, in 2014, more than 200 schoolgirls were taken in the remote town of Chibok.

The jihadists have used abducted females as sex slaves and human bombs, while boys are enlisted to fight.

Northeast Nigeria has been buffeted in recent weeks by devastating attacks.

On Friday at least 45 people died and 33 others were wounded in another double suicide attack carried out by female bombers at a marketplace in the town of Madagali.

In October another set of female suicide bombers killed 17 people at a station near a camp for internally displaced persons.

In February 2015, Boko Haram used an eight-year-old to carry out a suicide attack in Potiskum, in Yobe state, and a 10- and 18-year-old pair were involved in a failed July 2014 attack in Funtua, in northwestern Katsina state.