Boko Haram’s Strategic Interest in Women and Children

On June 16th, a suicide bombing left at least 30 dead and 40 injured in Nigeria. Two young girls and an adult male are responsible for the deaths after detonating explosives at various locations around a cinema hall. While no terrorist organization has claimed responsibility, the attack is characteristic of Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamist terrorist group.

The terrorist organization took the international spotlight in 2014 when it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria. This was a key factor in Boko Haram’s evolution into utilizing women and children. Between April 2011 and June 2017, the terrorist group deployed 434 suicide bombers, of which over half were women and at least 81 were children.

Boko Haram has deployed more female suicide bombers than any other terrorist group in history, and their motives behind doing so are highly strategic.

Boko Haram uses women and children as a means of avoiding detection. Young girls and pregnant women especially are viewed as innocent and incapable of committing such terror. This makes it easy for them to infiltrate crowds without drawing suspicion to themselves. Women’s loose-fitting clothing also makes it relatively easy to conceal a bomb. Even if a woman is suspected of concealing an explosive, Nigerian cultural norms make it inappropriate for a man to search her for it. Suicide bombers recognize this, and occasionally men will disguise themselves as women to make the operation easier to carry out.

Women and children are of little importance in Boko Haram’s leadership structure and are viewed as far more expendable than men. The terrorist group sees the sole value of women and children to the organization in their potential to carry out suicide bombings.

With the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Nigeria, women and children often lack the means to support themselves. According to USAID, as of December 2017, 7.7 million people in northeastern Nigeria required some form of humanitarian aid. These people currently need emergency food assistance, clean drinking water, and health services among other things. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) have sought refuge in host communities, putting a severe strain on local resources.

Boko Haram offers incentives, such as food and water supply, that appeal to girls and women needing assistance. As a result, some women and children join Boko Haram voluntarily for self-preservation. In other cases, they are coerced to join the Islamist group. Boko Haram has used girls as young as seven years old to commit attacks. At such a young age, fear and naivety are certainly key components in girls’ willingness to cooperate and do what they are told. Even adult women become submissive out of fear. Some female insurgents have reported threats of being killed or having a family member killed if they do not comply with Boko Haram’s demands. Forms of punishment for noncompliance include physical violence and harassment.

Other means of recruitment involve marriage into the group or the promise of salvation. If a woman marries a male insurgent, she is automatically welcomed into the organization. Marriage into Boko Haram can be voluntary or coercive. The image of reuniting with loved ones in the afterlife is also popular in inspiring women and children to become martyrs. They are told that if they complete the martyrdom mission, they will immediately go to heaven where they will enjoy eternal paradise with the loved ones they have lost.

Boko Haram is the “first terrorist group in history to use more women suicide bombers than men, and is at the vanguard of using children as suicide bombers,” says Jason Warner, assistant professor at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Its unprecedented use of women and children marks a shift in strategy for the organization and continues to make Boko Haram stand out from other terrorist groups in an alarming way.