Thursday 30 July 2015

Girl as Young as 10 Kills 19 in Nigeria in Latest Wave of Suicide Bombings

A girl, who police described as around 10 years old, killed 19 and injured 47 in a suicide bombing on Sunday in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Damaturu.
No group has taken responsibility for the attack, although the bombing employed a similar approach as previous attacks attributed to the jihadist group, Boko Haram. This attack is the most recent in a string of bombings over the last month employing women and young girls.
Sunday’s bombing took place near a crowded market in Damaturu, a city in the Nigerian state of Yobe, which has been the site of a number of recent suicide attacks.
Toyin Gbadegesin, a Yobe police spokesman, told the Reuters that “a female of about 10 years old capitalised on the crowded entrance of the market where screening was being conducted and detonated the device.”
Six days earlier, militants detonated a car bomb on a highway connecting Damaturu and the Borno state Capital Maiduguri, killing three policemen. On 20 July, Gbadegasin told Reuters that the police had seized two cars loaded with explosives when the SUV exploded.
The attack came just three days after an elderly woman and girl around 10-years-old killed nine Muslim worshippers who were on their way to celebrate the end of Ramadan feast holiday, Eid al-Fitr. According to a military spokesman, the bombs were detonated on 17 July in the queue leading to an open-air praying area. Boko Haram has been know to target Mosques where clerics preach against Islamic extremism and the actions of the terrorist organization.
On July 25th an attack involving a female suicide bomber in the northern town of Maroua, Cameroon killed at least 19 and injured 62 at a bar in the Pont Vert neighborhood near a bridge crossing the river that flows next to the town.
Maroua was also the site of two additional bombings in a public market and a populated neighbourhood on 22 July, which reportedly killed 13 and injured 32.
In each of these cases, the attacks were attributed to Boko Haram, although no responsibility was claimed. Boko Haram declared their allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS) in March.
Since coming to office on 29 May of this year, President Muhammadu Buhari pledged: “From the first day of my administration, Boko Haram will know the strength of our collective will and commitment to rid this nation of terror, and bring back peace and normalcy to all the affected areas.” The terrorist group has intensified their attacks in northern Nigeria and the regions surrounding the country’s borders since Buhari was sworn into office.

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