: The majority of suicide bombers used by terror group Boko Haram to kill innocent victims are women and children, a US study reveals.
Researchers at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point and Yale University analyzed the 434 suicide bombings carried out by Nigeria-based militants Boko Haram since 2011, and found that at least 244 of the 338 attacks in which the bomber’s gender could be identified were carried out by women.
The ISIS-affiliated insurgent group has sent 80 women to their deaths in 2017 alone.
Boko Haram’s use of women as bombers increased following the abduction of 276 female students aged between 16 and 18 from their school dormitories in April 2014. The Chibok Girls’ abduction prompted the global “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign.
“Almost immediately after the Chibok kidnappings ... Boko Haram’s use of women suicide bombers skyrocketed,” says Jason Warner, assistant professor at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, the United States’ elite military academy.