In the early hours of Monday, January 16, 2017, two suicide bombers detonated explosives inside two mosques at the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), killing Professor Aliyu Mani and four other people.
Some students and members of staff had gone to observe their Fajr prayers. According to the Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), 15 other students were serious injured in the blast.
ZENITHBLOG.com later revealed that one of the bombers was a child of about seven.
On Friday, February 3, 2017, Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima said in a press conference on Boko Haram suicide bombing attacks: “In this criminal endeavor, they resort to the use of teenagers and children as young as seven years.
“More recently, they even strap babies on the back of their recruits in order to slip through our security dragnets.
“They also use hard drugs on these innocent children, who do not know what they are doing when they kill their own parents, relations, and fellow countrymen and women.
“Many precious lives have been lost, hundreds of citizens, including school girls, were abducted. Many more people have suffered serious injuries as a result of these senseless acts of bloodthirsty enemies of peace.”
The scene of the UNIMAID mosque bombing, in which a child of about seven was involved
On Wednesday, March 15, 2017, four female teenage suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing two people and wounding 16 others in a residential area in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri.
The girls knocked on the door of a house and then detonated their explosive devices, a representative of the state-run emergency service in Borno state said.
READ ALSO: The full story of the Chibok girls from 276 to 197
Those are single examples from the first three months in 2017. According to UNICEF data, a total of 27 children have died so far this year after detonating bombs strapped to their bodies that they were ordered to carry into markets, checkpoints and other public places.
The number is almost the same as the total who died over the whole of last year. Most of the time, girls are used for these attacks.
Therefore in communities that have had any contact with Boko Haram, most look at young ones with fear and suspicion.
UNICEF’s Marie-Pierre Poirier says: “These children are victims, not perpetrators. Forcing or deceiving them into committing
It is reasonable to conclude that some of the bombers are from among the missing Chibok girls. On April 14, 2014, 276 girls were abducted by the Boko Haram sect.
Young female suicide bombers apprehended before they could blow up themselves in Nigeria
Today, April 14, 2017, three full years later, not all of them have been returned. The main activist group that has campaigned for the Chibok girls’ release, the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group has been holding events in the capital, Abuja, to mark the third anniversary of their abduction.
The group has also petitioned the government to do more to bring them home, whether by negotiating with Boko Haram or by rescuing them by force.
Fatima Abba-Kaka an activist attending the marches said: “We took a vow in April 2014 that we’ll not stop until our girls are back and alive.”
She also explained why it was vital to continue protesting.“It’s Nigeria. If not they would have forgotten the Chibok girls. I’m a mother, I have a daughter – it can be anybody’s child,” she said.
Red ribbons tied to trees marked the path protestors took through Abuja to Aso Rock Villa, the seat of the presidency.
READ ALSO: 3 years after: 13 facts about Boko Haram and missing Chibok girls
Meanwhile in Lagos, ZENITHBLOG.com covered the protest by the group. The protesters marched through the streets and roads of the Nigerian business centre to the office of the governor.
However, the protesters were prevented from getting close to the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s office by security officials.
Watch a live video of the protest by ZENITHBLOG.com below:
These protests have become an annual event, here is last year’s protest march:
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