The Nation Newspaper

Tag: female suicide bombers

  • Two suicide bombers die in failed Borno attack

    The Borno Police Command said on Saturday that two suspected female suicide bombers died when one them detonated the Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) strapped on her body.

    The police said worshippers at Juddumari mosque in Maiduguri noticed the suspects and stopped them from attacking the worshippers in the mosque during the early morning prayer.

    The spokesman of the state police command, Mr. Victor Isuku, stated these in a statement in Maiduguri.

    He said, “At about 5:20a.m. on Saturday, two suspected female suicide bombers with IEDs strapped to their bodies attempted to enter a mosque at Juddumari village, after Federal High court, Maiduguri.

    ”They were intercepted and prevented by the worshippers and in the process, one of them detonated her IED, killing both of them and injuring five others.

    ”The injured were rushed to a specialist hospital, while the remains of the suicide bombers had been evacuated by the officials of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).

    The Information Officer of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the North East, Malam Abduldulkadir Ibrahim, confirmed that the agency response team helped in evacuating the bodies.

    ”Following an explosion around a mosque close to Federal High Court Jiddari, the emergency response teams have evacuated the bodies of two female suicide bombers believed to have died in the incident,” Ibrahim stated.

    He said the injured victims were administered with first aid and taken to hospitals thereafter.

    NAN

  • Three suspected female suicide bombers killed in Adamawa

    Three suspected female suicide bombers killed in Adamawa

    Members of a vigilante group in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State yesterday shot dead three suspected female suicide bombers attempting to enter the Gulak market.

    Gulak is the headquarters of Madagali Local Government Area.

    The chairman of the local government, Alhaji Yusuf Mohammed, told reporters that the suspected suicide bombers were sighted from a distance by the vigilantes, who were on patrol around the Bakin Dutse area.

    He said the suspects were ordered by the vigilantes to stop, but they refused.

    “The shots by the vigilantes detonated the explosives on two of the suspected bombers.

    “Although the explosive device on the third suspect did not set off, the explosion of the devices on the two other suspects killed her.

    “We suspect the bombers were on their way to Gulak market as today is the market day,” Mohammed said.

    The spokesman of the 28 Task Force Battalion, Mubi, Maj. Akintoye Badare, confirmed the incident, which he said occurred at about 10am at Bakin Dutse, near Gulak town.

  • Three female suicide bombers killed in Gwoza

    …Kidnappers arrested in Kaduna

    A major attack by terrorist group Boko Haram was averted by soldiers in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno state after three female suicide bombers were neutralized.

    According to Army Headquarters, the female suicide bombers had attempted to attack a military location in the town.

    The troops were alerted by the members of the vigilante group who noticed that the three women looked suspicious and walked awkwardly with bulging hijab distinct from other female farmers.

    According the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, the suicide bombers noticed they were been observed and attempted to detonate the bombs at the military location.

    “When the suicide bombers noticed that they were being observed, they hurriedly ran towards troops aiming to detonate it on them. The troops neutralized two of the female suicide bombers, while the other ran back into the bush but was pursued. Unfortunately, a soldier sustained injuries due to the impact of the explosion. The wounded soldier is currently receiving treatment at a military medical centre and he is in stable condition,” Usman said.

    Meanwhile troops of 1 Division Nigerian Army stationed in Anchau, Kubau Local Government Area of kaduna State, also arrested two kidnappers in the process of collecting ransom from a kidnap victim’s family in the area.

    The arrest followed a tip off by well-meaning Nigerians that the kidnappers had arrived Dutsen Wai for ransom collection from their victim’s family. Troops were said to have trailed the kidnappers in an unmarked car.

    Army spokesman, Col. Usman said the kidnappers who were operating along Abuja-Kaduna road fled towards Zaria in a Honda car with registration number AJ 183 ABJ when they realized that they were being trailed.

    “Consequently, the pursuing troops alerted the police stationed in Soba. In the process fleeing, the kidnappers overran the police checkpoints at Soba and Maigana and proceeded to Zaria where they were finally apprehended,” he said.

    Items recovered from the suspected kidnappers include:  Honda Accord car, one mobile telephone handset, 4 MTN, 1 Airtel Subscribers identified module (SIM) cards, 1 micro SD card, a national identity card, an INEC voters registration  card, a Miyetti Allah cattle Breeders’ Association of Nigeria Identity Card, United Bank for Africa and Keystone Bank Debit Cards, cash sum of Twelve Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ten Naira (N12,710.00k) and a Notebook containing several names, addresses and telephone numbers of kidnap victims families and
    relations.

  • Two female bombers die in Cameroon

    Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Monday in the Far North region of Cameroon while trying to carry out attacks for Boko Haram sect, local officials said, but there were no other deaths.

    “The suicide bombing took place at the entrance of Bodo. Two women bombers wanted to get to the market place but they were stopped by vigilantes,” Abgassi Adoum, mayor of Makary district of which Bodo is a part, told Reuters.

    He said one member of the watch committee was lightly wounded.

    Another bomber died and two people were wounded in a separate incident on Saturday in Tolkomari village in the Kolofata neighbourhood, a local official said.

    Boko Haram has waged a six-year campaign for an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria. Neighbouring countries joined an offensive against the group this year and the conflict spilled across their borders, displacing tens of thousands of people.

    Cameroon is also in an 8,700-strong regional force led by Nigeria against the militants, expected to be operational by the end of the year. The United States is sending military supplies and troops to the central African country to aid the fight.

  • Female suicide bombers: Dealing with the emerging trend

    Female suicide bombers: Dealing with the emerging trend

    In modern history, female suicide bombers have earned dubious honour of becoming more news-worthy than their male counterparts following the widespread belief that women are naturally not wicked, non-violent, motherly and weak to take such deadly task of committing suicide bombing. However, records have revealed that the participation of women in any terrorist activity and even as suicide bombers is hardly a recent phenomenon as their debut suicide attacks have been traced to early eighties.

    Recall the 1985 incident where a 16-year old Lebanese female suicide bomber, the late Sana’a Mehaidli, a member of Syrian Social nationalist party, an affiliation of the Lebanese National Resistance Front, blew herself and a car filled with explosives in Jezzine, Lebanon. Subsequent decades witnessed the spread of female suicide bombings in other countries after late Sana’a Mehaidli’s incident.

    Another prominent example of a female suicide bomber is the 28-year old divorced and frustrated Palestinian, late WafaIdris who carried a bomb in a back-pack she wore and blew herself up during the 2002 Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Jerusalem, Israel.

    Today, the Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria has joined the trend of using innocent young girls as suicide bombers to unleash their terror on innocent citizens. This new trend in Nigeria started in Gombe State where yet to be identified middle-aged woman wrapped an explosive round her body and headed towards the Quarter Guard of the 301 Nigerian Army base in Gombe. While she was being stopped for a search, the bomb suddenly went off.

    In a similar vein, four (4) unidentified female suicide attackers heavily strapped with IEDs have at different locations; different days but almost same week of the month of July, 2014 blew themselves up while the security personnel on duty were trying to stop them from accessing their target areas in Kano State. Worried about this curious phenomenon, some Nigerians have already concluded that the Boko Haram insurgents have indoctrinated and prepared the abducted Chibok school girls for suicide missions across the country. Although the above hypothesis sounds plausible, there is no empirical evidence to support the view. The recent interception and subsequent arrest of two teenage girls by Policemen at Katsina State casts a huge doubt on the veracity of this claim as none of the two girls already strapped with explosives and prepared for suicide mission was among the abducted Chibok girls.

    As can be seen from the level of damage and horror associated with female bombing, it has become paramount for law enforcement to deal with the emerging trend before it gets out of control. It is on this note that this piece will examine the choice of female suicide bombers by the terrorist groups in carrying out their attacks and the possible ways of nipping in bud or preventing this evil trend.

     

    Why terrorist groups use female suicide bombers

    Generally, suicide bombing notoriety and the use of women to perpetrate suicide attacks are totally strange to Nigerians. The Boko Haram terrorist group sees this new trend as an effective strategy of drawing more attention of the general public and getting relevant supports from their sympathizers as they continue their criminal and violent campaign across the nation.

    Terrorist organisations believe that if a woman commits a crime such as suicide attack that is deemed non-feminine, the media coverage will be extensive. This fits into the communication and strategic objectives of terror organizations in seeking massive media attention, thereby mindlessly spreading fears among the citizens, presenting government in bad light and unleashing psychological torture on innocent victims.

    Another reason that account for why terrorist groups adopt this trend is that women are generally known to be more emotional, perceived to be weak and non-violent in nature. They are therefore least suspected to be the source of any security threat. For this reason, they find it easy to slip through security checks, especially those manned by male officers since they are usually not subjected to the same level of suspicion and scrutiny as their male counterparts. However, this does not amount to negligence or inefficiency on the part of the security agents but arises from the operational and professional standards of law enforcement which forbids male officers from conducting search on the body of women.

    In addition, it is also easier for women to be indoctrinated especially when they are intellectually immature, uneducated and perhaps from very poor and deprived backgrounds. Remember that the innocent two sisters of about 16 and 11 years old respectively, strapped with explosive vests and arrested by the Police in Katsina were not even aware they were carrying bombs. Further investigation also revealed that both of them were orphans and thus economically and socially disadvantaged.

    Lastly, apart from the perceived personal and lifetime rewards, some female suicide bombers want to be worldly known as ‘heroines’ with their terror organizations, affiliates and sympathizers. A classic example is the late Sana’a Mehaidli who was believed to have been the first female suicide bomber in Lebanon, earned in death the title of “the Bride of the South”.

    Preventing female suicide bombers from carrying out attack

    Once a female suicide bomber begins to move towards a target, it is extremely hard to stop her from executing her wicked act of causing mass destruction. However, the most helpful way of nipping the planned attack in the bud is to take deliberate and effective measures aimed at isolating and frustrating her from getting to her target area. Some of such measures include:

    Firstly, experienced, well-trained and well-equipped women security personnel should be part of stop and search operations to properly carry out search on females before they gain their entrance into restricted areas. In doing this, there should be no preferential treatment for any woman irrespective of her social status and age.

    Secondly, there must be proactive operational action by law enforcement agents, acting intelligently, timely and systematically to neutralize suspected suicide threats. For instance, the successful arrest that took place on the29th July, 2014 in Katsina State where a 47-year old Boko Haram operative, DahiruIliya with two teenage female suicide attackers of about 16 and11 years old was as a result of the timely intervention of the Police with the full co-operation of the local security in the State. Before the arrest of the suspects, intelligence report had already revealed that the Boko Haram terrorists have concluded plans to unleash mayhem using female suicide attackers during the Ramadan fasting period. The two female suicide bombers who were of the same parent were already strapped with suicide vests unknowingly to them in a Honda CRV car at Tudun Wada where the Police patrol team arrested them.

    Thirdly, authorities in charge of potential soft targets such as worship centres, institutions of learning, markets and other critical infrastructure should take deliberate measures to strengthen the security in their premises by using crime prevention and monitoring devices such as bomb-jammers and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in addition to security agents.

    Conscious of the fact that ignorance and poverty provide fertile grounds for radicalization, it is important that governments at all levels should develop and implement holistic measures aimed at preventing the radicalization of our young girls through massive education and empowerment programmes.

    Parents, teachers and religious leaders should be engaged in positive socialization and always see themselves as structures and mechanisms of social order by assisting our children and youths in moral development, acquiring right behaviours and admirable culture of respect for our value system as well as attitudes that will form part of their daily life. The opinion leaders must not hesitate to speak out when the youths are being misled. As rightly noted recently by the Sultan of Sokoto, “nobody can bomb their way to Heaven in the name of suicide attack.”

    More so, head of security agencies and government at all levels must collaboratively work towards establishing community based law enforcement agencies that have the confidence and support of the citizens in the crucial task of securing lives and property. This will in addition, facilitate the free flow of information and strengthen intelligence-sharing culture amongst the law enforcement communities. Citizens on their part also, must acknowledge the fact that security is a collective responsibility of all.

    Finally, we must remember that the greatest success in preventing female suicide bombers from carrying out their foul acts largely depends on the willingness of the public to report all suspicious activities to the security agents. It is also very important for the governments and other relevant stake holders to support the security Forces by providing necessary working implements and improving on the welfare of Police personnel and other security agencies in the country.

     

    •Mba, an Assistant Commissioner of Police. is the Force Public Relations Officer.

  • Now, female suicide bombers

    From all indications, the terrorism that has for some years now held this nation to its knees appears for the worse. In spite of concerted efforts at stemming it, pleas and condemnations from all divide; respite does not appear in sight.

    Each time there are serious moves to combat the scourge, it rebounds with a new face, tactics and such lethal sophistication that dims hope on a permanent handle to it.

    Or, how else do we explain the new complication which the phenomenon of lone female suicide bombers has now added to the war against terrorism? Just last week and in Kano State alone, four lone female suicide bombers wreaked havoc on defenceless people killing and injuring many.

    In the first incident, a female suicide bomber who had queued up with local women waiting to buy kerosene at a petrol station was blown up killing and injuring some of those around the scene. The second took place at the Kano Trade Fair Complex as another was shattered while mingling with the crowd. Four people including two policemen were injured.

    Before these, another had occurred at a private university gate when a female, wired with explosives, approached the police men on duty apparently to invite them to the last Eid-el-Fitri festival in her house. Suspecting the motive of the young girl, the police men took to their heels. She pursued them and was blown up in the process. The list is endless. Reports gave the estimated age of the girls between 16 and 19 years old.

    Since then, fear and anxiety have gripped people in the state and beyond as the issue has added a new dimension to the terrorism scourge.

    The apprehension is quite understandable given the deadly challenges that have come with the new tactics. There is the difficulty in determining who a female suicide bomber is. Not unexpectedly, this will lead to the profiling and harassment of the female folk with the attendant inconveniences. Even then, it comes with the problem of screening. How do you screen them, at what point and who will do that? The dilemma in getting a quick handle to lone female suicide bombers was underscored most poignantly by the reaction of the police men who took to their heels on suspicion of the woman’s mission. Had they waited or attempted to search her, they would have been killed by the explosives when they detonated. Such is the mortal danger posed by the new tactics of the terrorists.

    Before the rise of Boko Haram, it was deemed inconceivable that terrorism would find accommodation on these shores. This view was reinforced when Nigeria was adjudged the happiest people in the world despite the debilitating poverty and squeezing challenges of development facing its people. It was therefore thought that such a happy people were less likely to take to violent activities as denoted by acts of terrorism.

    But Boko Haram has brought to naught all that optimism. Matters are not remedied by the new scourge of lone female suicide bombers. It is very curious that women, considered the most vulnerable in crisis times can undertake to bring unto themselves unmitigated harm in the name of suicide bombing.

    Just recently, the nation went sorrowful when some 200 school girls were abducted at Chibok, Borno state. The furore the abduction generated was largely on account of the sex of the victims. Vigorous campaigns have been mounted and an international coalition assembled to secure the release of the girls. Sympathy for the Chibok girls may pale into insignificance in the face of the volunteer by young girls to terminate their lives prematurely through suicide bombing.

    In effect, lone female suicide bombers may become our greatest challenge in the current war against the Boko Haram insurgency.

    The impression one gets from the resilience and changing face of terrorism is that whatever grievances that spurred its initial purveyors are still potent in the different dimensions the malfeasance has continued to find expression. Or put differently, there is yet to be a change of heart by those who sponsor these acts of terrorism. That is why everything must be done to decisively tame this monster.

    What do the Boko Haram insurgents really demand from the Nigerian state that they will not allow peace? This poser is apposite given some of the excuses and rationalization that have come from certain quarters. It is more compelling when juxtaposed against the initial reasons the sect gave for taking up arms against the Nigerian state.

    Then, they had proclaimed religious and sectional reasons as the leitmotif for action. They were against western education; they wanted a theocratic state that would see non-Muslims and southerners fleeing the north. Those were their known reasons and they did show them in their initial selection of targets and mode of operation.

    Soon, apologists began to throw up such obtuse variables as ignorance, poverty and negligence. Some others viewed it as a product of ideology built on falsehood. Yet, there were others who saw the perpetrators as not true Muslims since that religion abhors the type of senseless killings that have been associated with them.

    Others have continued to read political motive to it. The conduct of politicians has not helped this dimension. Blames have been traded, and accusing fingers pointed right, left and centre. It is likely to get more complex with the elections lurking around the corner.

    A recent security opinion poll on likely reasons for the festering malaise threw up political interests relating to election matters and poverty as the key factors.

    Poverty may have a role in breeding ready recruits for the sponsors but it is getting clearer that Boko Haram is largely propelled and influenced by the twin issues of religion and politics. We can continue to trivialize these facts at the detriment of the country. It is this equivocation, insincerity and glaring refusal to admit the obvious that has brought complications in the war against insurgency. It smacks of self deceit to contend that no true Muslim will venture into the killings associated with Boko Haram simply because Islam abhors that. Or no real Christian will commit murder as it runs contrary to its doctrines. Who a true Muslim or Christian is, is value-laden and therefore of questionable empirical appeal.  May be, we shall turn to the declining tribe of pagans and animists for all our societal ills. Ironically, the same people who refuse to accept the religious and political dimensions are angling to take advantage of their fallouts.

    The nation is sliding to the precipice and a slight error of omission or commission on the choice of targets could be the last straw. We saw it nearly coming with the bomb attacks on former military Head of State Muhammad Buhari and Sheikh Bauchi. We saw attempts to politicize the matter.

    Those who sponsor this insurgency know the fault lines of our national existence and are likely to exploit them to achieve their selfish aims. These are the issues to watch.