LAGOS: Witnesses say four female suicide bombers have killed 13 civilians and wounded 30 in explosions at a market in the Chibok hometown of Nigeria's kidnapped schoolgirls.

A man at the scene says the blasts began on Wednesday when soldiers tried to search a young woman covered in a hijab in the northeast Nigerian town. Then three women inside the market exploded in quick succession. The man insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals.

A Chibok community leader in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, said another blast occurred at a military checkpoint in Chibok. Tsambo Hosea Abana says relatives called to tell him his uncle and 15-year-old niece are among the wounded.

He blamed Boko Haram Islamic extremists who kidnapped nearly 300 Chibok schoolgirls in April 2014 of whom 219 remain missing.