Children Used in Boko Haram Suicide Attacks in Northern Nigeria

On Sunday June 16th, at least 30 people were killed and 40 injured in a triple suicide attack in the northeast Nigerian state of Borno. The attack, which was carried out by two girls and a boy, is the biggest mass killing this year by Islamist militants. Although no group has come forward to claim responsibility, Boko Haram, which has a history of using children as suicide bombers, is thought to be responsible. According to UNICEF, Boko Haram has recruited five children for suicide attacks this year and 48 were used in 2018 – 38 of whom were girls.

The suicide bombing took place in a video hall in the village of Konduga. These viewing centers are common in northern Nigeria, where the public can pay a small fee to watch soccer games or movies. A BBC report reveals that Boko Haram has targeted these centers on several occasions, claiming they are not Islamic and that soccer and drinking beer are evidence of corrupting Western influence.

Northern Nigeria has experienced a decade of armed conflict waged by the Islamist group, which has killed more than 30,000 people and displaced millions of civilians. The Nigerian military has focused most of its efforts on neutralizing Boko Haram and although the Nigerian government claims to have driven them out of previously held territory, the group continues its terror campaign against “soft targets in mosques, markets and public gatherings.” Last week, a panel of Nigerians spoke on the killings, kidnappings, and arrests taking place in their communities at a Boko Haram victims’ testimonial in Washington. Among them was Rebecca Sharibu, mother of Leah Sharibu – one of the 110 schoolgirls kidnapped from the Government Girls Science Technical College in Yobe State by the group in February 2018.

The Islamist group seeks to purify Islam in northern Nigeria and targeted the Yobe school because it offered western education to girls. The name “Boko Haram” itself translates to “Western education is forbidden” and it adheres to this maxim by waging physical jihad, or a war against false Muslims and nonbelievers.

In Nigeria today, the Adara ethnic group in southern Kaduna, which is predominantly Christian, suffers unabated violence from both Boko Haram and Muslim Fulani herdsmen. The recent surge in violence is partly due to false claims made by Kaduna governor, Nasir El-Rufai, that “133 people, mostly Fulani, were murdered on the eve of Nigeria’s presidential elections.” This statement also led to the arrests of nine Adara chiefs and elders, whom El-Rufai still refuses to release.

Save The Persecuted Christians is an advocacy group created as a response to the worsening conditions in northern Nigeria. The group has urged President Donald Trump to appoint a U.S. Special Envoy to Nigeria, to coordinate a U.S. response to this religious persecution and terrorism crisis in Nigeria.