Teenage female suicide bombers wreck havoc in Nigeria’s north

For many Nigerians, the news of women blowing themselves up did not read stranger than other reports of Boko Haram atrocities. It was something that has been reported before. The only difference was that while other reports indicated a random activity, the present reports of female suicide bombers blowing themselves up in Kano points to a coordinated plan that should send shivers down the spine of everybody.

On July 30, a female suicide bomber blew herself up in a Kano polytechnic campus. By the time the smoke cleared, six innocent people were dead and Kano residents struggled to come to terms with what is the fourth such attack in a week.

A few hours before the Kano blast, security agents reported the discovery of a ten-year-old girl wearing a suicide vest and travelling with a man and an 18-year-old girl in Funtua, a town in nearby Katsina state. Funtua is also the home town of Retired General Mohammadu Buhari, who was the target of a suicide bomber last week.

Know one knows exactly what Boko Haram wants to achieved with what many experts see as a change of tactics, but most believe the group is succeeding with its attempt to terrorise Nigerians.

Some other people has claimed that the wave of female suicide bombers may be connected to the Chibok kidnap saga, a claim the government has denied as being improbable.