Three girls staged suicide bombings in the Nigerian city of Damaturu on Friday, killing at least 13 people as residents prepared for the Eid festival at the end of holy month of Ramadan.

Three girls staged suicide bombings in the Nigerian city of Damaturu on Friday, killing at least 13 people as residents prepared for the Eid festival at the end of holy month of Ramadan, police said.

The attacks, in a northeastern area hard hit by the Boko Haram terrorist group, came just days before Nigeria's new President Muhammadu Buhari travels to Washington for talks with US counterpart Barack Obama.

The bombings came on the day the country's new army chief was due to visit the city to meet soldiers battling Boko Haram.

Buhari is expected to use Monday's meeting with Obama to push for US help to tackle the terrorist violence, which has surged since he took office in May, claiming more than 700 lives.

In the Nigerian attacks, residents said twin explosions near a prayer ground in Damaturu killed two people, before a third blast moments later near a mosque that left another 11 dead.

Markus Danladi, Yobe state police commissioner, confirmed 13 people were killed.

"The attacks were carried out by three underage girls. Fifteen people were also injured in the attacks."

Boko Haram have increasingly used young women and girls as human bombs over the past year as part of campaign of terror, which has left 15,000 people dead and 1.5 million homeless since 2009.

In a sign of how the violence is spreading across the region, a soldier and 19 Boko Haram operatives were killed in a shootout following a raid on an army post at Lake Chad, a security source in neighboring Chad said.

Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno said he would not back down against the extremists, vowing: "Boko Haram will disappear one day."