Update: 10-year-old girl behind suicide bombing attack on New Year’s eve in Maiduguri
A girl aged around 10 years was behind the suicide bombing attack that rocked Maiduguri on New Year’s Eve, reports have revealed.
According to AFP, the attack was carried out by the girl who approached a crowd buying noodles from a food vendor in the Customs area of the city around 9:30 pm on Saturday and detonated her explosives.
Contrary to earlier reports that many were feared dead in the attack, only one person had been confirmed to be seriously injured.
A witness identified as Grema Usman told AFP Sunday, “The girl walked towards the crowd but she blew up before she could reach her target.”
“She died instantly, while one person was seriously hurt after after he was hit by shrapnel.”
“(Judging) from her corpse the girl was around 10 years old,” Usman said.
An aid worker involved in the evacuation of the body gave a similar estimate of the bomber’s age.
“The girl was clearly not more than 10 and this could have made her too nervous, making her to detonate the explosives prematurely,” the aid worker suggested.
A second female suicide bomber was caught and lynched by a mob, Borno State police spokesman Victor Isuku confirmed. Her bomb was safely detonated by security forces.
Boko Haram, believed to be the mastermind of the attack, is notorious for using young girls to perpetuate suicide attacks in the North Eastern part of the country.
The recent attack came a week after the Nigeria Army announced the takeover of Boko Haram’s last enclave in Sambisa forest.
