Suicide bombing by young girl in NE Nigeria, 10 dead: Red Cross, vigilante

[Bosonic]

Source: AFP

At least 10 people were killed on Saturday when a young girl, thought to be aged about 10, blew herself up at a crowded market in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the Red Cross and vigilantes said.

Civilian vigilante Ashiru Mustapha said the powerful explosion rocked the market at about 12:40 pm (1140 GMT) when it was packed with traders and shoppers, adding that the girl "was about 10 years old".

A Red Cross official, who declined to give his name, said: "We have so far evacuated 10 bodies to the mortuary at the (Borno) State Specialist Hospital."

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/150110/suicide-bombing-young-girl-ne-nigeria-10-dead-red-cross-vigilante

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

1. "Blew herself up"

arrrgghhhh

She was about ten years old. In our culture we recognize that she would not have the right to make such a decision; could we not report it as such?

This girl was used by adults! She no more consented to being a suicide martyr than a ten year old victim of rape consents to sex!

[NutmegYankee]

2. I think the usage is correct.

She was not of an age where we recognize that she can make such a life or death decision, but she still clicked the button.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

3. It still infuriates me the way the media

reports on children who have been used and abused.

[NutmegYankee]

4. It's incredibly horrible that a child was brainwashed to carry out such a mission.

That they will sacrifice their children for offensive attacks says a lot about their movement.

[George II]

20. I doubt that those animals told her what would happen when she tripped the bomb, which is...

...even scummier.

[TorchTheWitch]

5. did she?

Or was it set off by remote? Even if she did press the button did she even understand what it would do?

[randr]

7. Is it true that she clicked a button

or are the explosives set off by remote systems?
We need to start to see these monstrous acts as criminal, inhumane, and totally unjustified by any stretch of rational thought.
Identifying the slayers as representative of any religious or quasi-political organization offers them a credibility they do not own.
Their Islamic claims are as false as the Christian banner bigots the world over hide behind.
They exist outside of all normal societal confides and should be identified and treated as nothing more than vicious criminals.

[Tanuki]

9. How do you know that "she clicked the button"?

It doesn't say any such thing in the link, and there have been previous cases in which remotely controlled explosive devices have been strapped to innocents, including the mentally disabled.

[TorchTheWitch]

22. it was detonated by remote control

She was an unwitting participant and likely one of the hundreds of girls and women they've kidnapped. Now it appears they're using them as cannon fodder so they don't have to blow themselves up. Boko Haram has been increasingly using women and girls as human bombs. They could easily hide the device in a backpack or some garment. Authorities don't believe she had any idea what she was carrying. They remote detonated just as she was being searched because she set off the metal detector at the market entrance.

[NutmegYankee]

25. Articles quoting Borno State police earlier said she had detonated it.

Hence my earlier comment. The police also said the device was wrapped around her body, so it wasn't in a backpack.

[jwirr]

10. Someone probably put a backpack on her and told her to take it to the hospital. She was most likely

not aware of what was in it.

So sad. This is not a war - it is murder. The people who used this child are cowards.

[Blue_Tires]

16. +1

She could have been brainwashed or simply coerced as well...

[jwirr]

17. Or given money for what she thought was going to be just a job. Nigeria has a lot of very poor

people.

[Scairp]

21. Exactly

This was NOT a suicide, it was murder, of the girl made to wear the explosives and all the people killed by the bomb. It's infuriating the media has chosen to mischaracterize it as a "suicide". Nothing could be further from the truth.

[oberliner]

6. Dear lord

This is horrifying.

[Chemisse]

8. That poor child - and those poor victims.

It's likely she was told she had to do this. We can only hope she didn't know what the results would be.

[Horse with no Name]

11. I recently did some research on Boko Haram

and in the course of the research, I found that after the kidnappings of the school girls, there was a spike in suicide bombings by young girls.

The author did not feel that was an accident. They felt that a majority of the girls had been sold into sexual slavery and some were being used in this way.

Regardless, it is worthy of consideration that this could be one of those children.

[TorchTheWitch]

24. so did I

Although I had already suspected they were using the women and girls they've kidnapped in this way once I found out that they've been increasing using women and girls as their human bombs.

And like everything else that happens in Africa nobody cares. The Nigerian government doesn't even care.

[Horse with no Name]

29. that's the sad part

[Eugene]

12. This isn't the first time.

From the BBC last month:

Nigerian girl says parents volunteered her as suicide bomber

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

She said one of the leaders asked her if she knew what a suicide bombing was.

"They said, 'Can you do it?' I said 'no'," she said.

"They said, 'You will go to heaven if you do it.' I said 'No I can't.' They said they would shoot me or throw me into a dungeon."

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30601639

[840high]

13. Yes. It won't be the last time either.

[uppityperson]

14. k&r for children who have been used in bad ways.

[SunSeeker]

15. The barbarism of those who would force a child into this horrific act is beyond comprehension.

[C Moon]

18. What a lot of worthless chicken crap they are to have to use a child to do their killing.

[Helen Borg]

19. I'm sure she knew what she was doing and consented to it.

[Marrah_G]

23. Unbelievable..............

[NewDeal_Dem]

26. "Civilian vigilante Ashiru Mustapha " = ?

[Skittles]

27. religious nutcases can be made to think and do anything

[NutmegYankee]

28. And they manage to justify harming anyone, even children.

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. Nigeria violence: Female suicide bombers hit market

Two female suicide bombers struck a crowded market in north-east Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least four other people and injuring dozens.

An eyewitness in the city of Potiskum, in Yobe state, told the BBC that the second bomb went off shortly after the first, hitting those helping victims.
...
A security official told AFP news agency that it appeared the bombs had been remote-controlled.

"The second bomber was terrified by the explosion and she tried to dash across the road but she also exploded," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30772028