Two teenage girls suspected of being members of the brutal Boko Haram jihadist group carried out a suicide attack against an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in the terrorist group’s Nigeria-based birthplace, killing at least five people and wounding 39 others.
The attack took place Wednesday in Nigeria’s Borno state, less than a month after a report by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) revealed that the number suicide bombings carried out by women and girls across the world on behalf of terrorist groups, mainly Boko Haram, reached an unprecedented level last year.
Like other jihadists groups, the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL)-linked Boko Haram is known to coerce females, particularly young girls, into engaging in jihad and becoming martyrs by carrying out suicide bombings.
“Suspected members of the Boko Haram sect struck at an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Dalori, Borno state, on Wednesday,” reports the Cable.
“Soldiers have locked up the place to probably prevent another suicide bomber from gaining access,” an unnamed witness told the Nigerian outlet. “I can’t say the number of those killed, but I know they are many.”
Nigeria’s Vanguard learned from the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) that the two teenage suicide bombers killed five people, in addition to themselves, and injured 39 others.
“The attack was carried out by two teenage girls, one of them gained access to the camp and detonated herself killing herself and five others, while 39 others were injured in the blast,” said Satomi Ahmed, the SEMA chairman, according to the Nigerian outlet Premium Times.
“The second one could not make it into the camp before her explosive went off, killing only herself,” added Ahmed.
The attack reportedly took place Wednesday night at the Dalori IDP camp located on the outskirts Borno’s capital city near the University of Maiduguri.
Nigerian and American officials have identified Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, as Boko Haram’s birthplace.
Dalori camp, home to an estimated 15,000 people, “is one of the largest IDP camps in Maiduguri,” noted the Premium Times.
Boko Haram has forced many Nigerians to flee their homes and seek refuge in IDP camps.
According to the Premium Times, “The camp has been targeted many times by suspected Boko Haram insurgents.”
Despite repeated claims by the Nigerian military that it has defeated Boko Haram, the jihadist group continues to wreak havoc across West Africa.
“In 2017, 137 women took part in 61 suicide attacks in 6 countries, compared to 77 women the previous year and 118 women in 2015. About 333 people were killed during these attacks,” revealed the INSS study.
“About 126 of the women (some 92 percent) who operated in Africa were in the service of the Boko Haram organization,” it added. “There may have been additional cases of women being deployed as suicide bombers, mainly in Africa and in Iraq, that were not included in the report as a result of the reporting restrictions.”