A 14-year-old Nigerian girl who was arrested with explosives
strapped to her body told journalists Wednesday that her parents
volunteered her to take part in a suicide attack.
The girl, who was identified as Zahra’u Babangida, was arrested in
Kano on December 10 following a double suicide bombing in a market that
killed 10 people.
She was presented to journalists by police and instructed to recount
how Islamist militants allegedly forced her to take part in the attack.
She said her mother and father, both Boko Haram sympathisers, took
her to an insurgent hideout in a forest near the town of Gidan Zana in
Kano state.
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| NABBED: 14 year old female suicide bomber, Zahra’u Babangida |
She said one alleged militant leader asked her whether she knew what a suicide bombing was.
“They said, ‘Can you do it?’ I said no.
“They said, ‘You will go to heaven if you do it.’ I said ‘No I
can’t.’ They said they would shoot me or throw me into a dungeon,”
Zahra’u told journalists.
There was no way to independently verify her story and she had no
lawyer present. No information was available concerning the whereabouts
of her parents.
Police said they had instructed the girl to tell her story to boost
public awareness about those responsible for the December 10 attack.
Faced with the threat of death, Zahra’u said she finally agreed to
take part in the attack but “never had any intention of doing it.”
Several days later, Zahra’u said, she and three other girls, all
wearing explosives, were brought to the Kantin Kwari market by
unidentified men.
Zahra’u said she was injured when one of the girls detonated her
bomb and then she fled the scene, ending up at a hospital on the
outskirts of Kano where she was discovered to be carrying explosives.
Boko Haram has increasingly used female suicide bombers, including teenagers, as part of their five-year insurgency.
Kano, the largest city in the mainly Muslim north, saw four such
attacks in one week in July, while similar bombings have hit the states
of Bauchi and Niger.
Experts say the group has used girls as bombers to demonstrate the
range of tactics they have available to sow fear across Nigeria.
If confirmed, Zahra’u’s story would be the first known case of
parents volunteering their daughter to take part in a deadly attack.
Violence in northern Nigeria has intensified in recent months, raising security fears ahead of February 14 elections.
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