Three female suicide bombers were shot dead Wednesday in Nigeria’s northeastern Adamawa state as they headed for a busy market in Gulak town, according to a local government and army officials.

Chairman of Madagali local government area, Yusuf Mohamed, told reporters that two of the bombers were sighted and shot by a local vigilante after they refused the order to stop for a routine search.

“The explosives on their bodies exploded after they were fired at. The third got killed in the explosion,” Mohamed said, adding the trio “were apparently headed for the Gulak township market to kill innocent people.”

An army spokesman in the area, Major Akintoye Badare confirmed the development to reporters, but said normalcy had since returned to the area.

Badare said troops were “always on alert” to thwart any attack.

The bombers were believed to be Boko Haram members who have waged a violent insurgent in the northeast since 2009. An estimated two million people have been displaced while over 20,000 are thought to have been killed in attacks linked to the militants.

The Nigerian army has declared itself victorious in the counterinsurgency campaign in the region following the recent capture of the militants’ most famous hideouts in the Sambisa forest, especially the so-called “camp zero”. (Rafiu Ajakaye/Anadolu Agency)

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