It’s hard to think a terrorist group that has kidnapped thousands and was just recently accused of carrying out what could possibly be its worst massacre ever could get any more horrific. But it has. In an unprecedented move, Boko Haram appears to have used a girl as young as 10 as a suicide bomber in a crowded northern Nigeria market, killing as many as 20 people. The New York Times says it “represented a new tactic in the Islamists’ campaign with their decision to use perhaps their youngest-ever suicide bomber.”
“It’s a little girl,” a hospital official tells the Times. “The body is beyond recognition, but from the face you can see it’s a young person. A young pretty girl.” It’s hard to think a terrorist group that has kidnapped thousands and was just recently accused of carrying out what could possibly be its worst massacre ever could get any more horrific. But it has. In an unprecedented move, Boko Haram appears to have used a girl as young as 10 as a suicide bomber in a crowded northern Nigeria market, killing as many as 20 people. The New York Times says it “represented a new tactic in the Islamists’ campaign with their decision to use perhaps their youngest-ever suicide bomber.”
“It’s a little girl,” a hospital official tells the Times. “The body is beyond recognition, but from the face you can see it’s a young person. A young pretty girl.”
Boko Haram has already used women as suicide bombers in the past but children had been largely off limits. Although not entirely. In June of last year, which marked the first time Boko Haram used a female suicide bomber, a 10-year-old girl was found wearing a suicide vest, according to AFP. But this latest attack appears to be the first one that was successful.
