Are Female Bombers “Chibok Girls”?

Still Missing! 219 Chibok school girls, 243 days of abduction, 13 days to Christmas, 19 to new year

In its five-year campaign to establish a caliphate in Nigeria, extremist group Boko Haram has repeatedly used suicide bombers against civilians and the military. But analysts say its recent use of female suicide bombers in strikes across the country show its growing ambition.

On Wednesday, 10 December 2014, at least four people have been killed and seven injured in a double attack by female suicide bombers near a market in Kano, northern Nigeria.

Shocking and striking resemblance between a dead female suicide bomber and one of the Chibok girls.

Last month more than 100 people died in a gun and bomb attack during prayers at one of the biggest mosques in Kano. Kano state police commissioner Adenrele Shinaba said the blast at the Kantin Kwari market in Kano city was "a twin suicide bombing carried out by two young girls in hijab".

"They came by the market and asked to be directed to a public convenience. The bombs detonated, killing them and four others," he told AFP. At least seven others were injured, he added.

The leader of the market traders union, Abdullahi Abubakar, said the blasts hit a parking area rather than the main market.

He estimated that the attackers were in their late teens and said they were accompanied by a man who disappeared after the girls blew themselves up.

Policemen stand near damaged vehicles in Sabon Gari, Kano May 19, 2014 where a suicide car bomber killed five people

 Some 2,000 have died in attacks blamed on the Islamists so far this year taking the tally over 13,000 since 2009.

The bombing of a market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri last month bore all the hallmarks of an attack by Boko Haram. The group has struck Maiduguri repeatedly. But this bombing, which killed more than 30 people, was different: the two bombers were women.

Boko Haram has recently been sending women to carry out suicide bombings across Nigeria, particularly in the northeast. No one is quite sure why they have started using women.

There has been speculation some bombers might be drawn from the ranks of more than 200 schoolgirls the group kidnapped on April 14 from the northeastern town of Chibok.

Nigerian police arrested a 13-year-old girl wearing an explosives-packed vest in the northern city of Kano 

On Thursday, December 11, 2014, Nigerian police arrested a 13-year-old girl wearing an explosives-packed vest in the northern city of Kano hours after an attack by two female suicide bombers at the textile market.

The girl turned up at a clinic on the outskirts of Kano hours after a double bombing at the ever-busy market in the city.

“The people there called the attention of security personnel who found explosives primed for a suicide attack on her,” said the security source, who requested anonymity, in an account confirmed by a nurse at the clinic.

 

GRAPHIC! The head of the Azare female bomber on display by protesters

Diary of recent female bombers in Nigeria:

·      *November 12, 2014: A female suicide bomber injured four people at the Federal College of Education in Kontagora, Niger state before reaching her target.

·       *November 16, 2014: A female suicide bomber blew herself up, killing at least a dozen people in a cellphone market in Azare, a town in Nigeria's Bauchi State.