ABC News AustraliaAt least 19 people were killed when a young girl, thought to be aged about 10, blew herself up at a crowded market in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, police say.
The powerful explosion rocked the market at about 12:40pm (local time) when it was packed with shoppers and traders.
Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin told reporters: “Casualty figure: 20 dead and 18 injured, including the female suicide bomber that detonated the improvised explosive device.”
The same market was hit twice by female suicide bombers late last year.
Borno State police said 18 people had been injured in the latest attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Boko Haram militants have increasingly used women and young girls as human bombs in their six-year quest for a hardline Islamic state.
Civilian vigilante Ashiru Mustapha said the explosives detonated as the girl was being searched at the entrance to the market.
“The girl was about 10 years old and I doubt much if she actually knew what was strapped to her body,” he told AFP news agency.
“In fact, she was searched at the entrance of the market and the metal detector indicated that she was carrying something.
“But sadly, the explosion went off before she was isolated, killing at least 10 people and injuring many others.”
The market was cordoned off as health officials began the grim task of sifting through the wreckage and collecting body parts.
A Red Cross official, who declined to give his name, said 10 bodies had been taken to the mortuary at the Borno State Specialist Hospital.
“Many people sustained life-threatening injuries,” he said.
An attack at the market on December 1 killed more than 10 people, and the previous week more than 45 people lost their lives in an attack there.
Boko Haram launched its first female suicide attack in June last year in the northern state of Gombe and there have been a spate of bombings since, including four in a week in the city of Kano.
In July, a 10-year-old girl was found in Katsina state wearing a suicide vest, prompting speculation that young girls were being forced into becoming human bombs rather than through ideological motivation.
AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-11/bomb-strapped-to-girl-kills-19-in-nigeria-reports/6010694
“The girl was about 10 years old and I doubt much if she actually knew what was strapped to her body,….”
That’s the key. She wasn’t a “suicide bomber” she was a murder victim, and the bomber pushed a button on a remote-control device as soon as he saw her being searched.
She may have been paid a few bucks to bring a knapsack to someone inside (and the knapsack went BOOM), but I don’t think you can get a 10 year-old to do this voluntarily.
What kind of sick perverts use a 10 yr. old girl as a bomb carrier? These poor excuses for humans don’t have the balls to carry out attacks on infrastructure themselves so they use a child instead. Beyond sick and twisted. ,,, Of course they could have used drones to blow up all those men, women and children. Thats perfectly acceptable, isn’t it?
“What kind of sick perverts use a 10 yr. old girl as a bomb carrier?”
Ultimately, that would be the jews.
“There was no immediate claim of responsibility…”
That would be the jews.