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

One other person was killed while at least 17 were injured in the explosions in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Officials blamed the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group that has staged numerous attacks in Maiduguri, the birthplace of the insurgency.

Boko Haram has used scores of women and girls in suicide bombings, prompting suspicions that some are among the many thousands that they have kidnapped over the years.

In a particularly horrific instance, a woman suicide bomber carrying a baby on her back was shot by soldiers at a checkpoint on November 28. The shot detonated her explosives, killing the woman and the baby.

Sunday's blasts occurred near Maiduguri's Monday Market, just weeks after the state government reopened the roads leading to the market. They had been closed for nearly two years over security concerns following previous bombings at the market that killed dozens of people.

On Friday, two women suicide bombers exploded in a market at Madagali, 150 kilometres (95 miles) southeast of Maiduguri, killing 57 people and wounding 177 including 120 children.

President Muhammadu Buhari declared the Boko Haram uprising "technically defeated" a year ago. On Friday, he vowed Nigeria's military is working "at slamming the final nail in the coffin of Boko Haram."

The seven-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people, forced 2.6 million from their homes and created a massive humanitarian crisis.

Boko Haram, which has one branch allied to the Islamic State group, wants to install an Islamic state in Nigeria, West Africa's oil giant of 170 million people divided almost equally between a mainly Christian south and predominantly Muslim north.