Over 134 suicide bombings have occurred since 2009 when Boko Haram unleashed a campaign of terror on Nigeria's Northeast region.
According to research by Combating Terrorism Center at West Point and
Yale University, at least 244 of the 338 attacks since 2011 where
gender is identifiable, have been young girls under the age of 7 - 13.
And the trend does not seem to be ending soon. On August 6th, 2017,
the Nigerian Army issued a statement appealing to religious and
traditional leaders in communities within the region to help dissuade
people from donating their daughters or female wards, to the terrorists
for indoctrination and suicide bombing missions.
It came off as one of the many announcements made to the media that
the public has become numb to over time because of the series of
unabated killings by Boko Haram.
Beyond the surface, however, it reflected the disturbing state of the
situation in Northern Nigeria and Nigerians moved on like everyday
tales in recent years since the beginning of the insurgency. “The
statement became expedient in view of recent revelations by some
intercepted female suicide bombers during interrogations”, the military
wrote.
37-year old Hadiza is a mother to three girls and a missing boy; she
loves her children but is willing to offer her teenage daughter to the
insurgents for the monetary benefit.
“I can’t say NO to the insurgents, can you?” she asks, speaking in
Hausa with the help of a local interpreter who doubled as a fixer. “What
has government done for us since we’ve been displaced?”
Hadiza is a nervous wreck, uncoordinated for most of the interview.
Hadiza and her husband were displaced after the deadly attacks on Biu in
July 2015 that left 78 persons killed including the insurgents.
Hadiza’s home was raided along with other residents but they hid in
the bush as the terrorists looted and torched houses, carting away food
produce. That attack forced them out of their home and they walked
kilometers from home and slept in the bush for more than six nights to
avoid being killed – that journey led them to finally, move and settle
in Maiduguri.
Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people and forced some 2.7
million others including her family to flee their homes since 2009.
Like every other woman in the neighborhood, she has been through
trauma and is a victim of the crisis that has forced her out of her
home. She lights a smoke while seated in the wooden chair, shaking her
legs constantly and can easily be mistaken for a crackhead.
“I have lost everything, I can’t feed these kids – we hear accounts
of stolen foods and items sent to those of us suffering but who are
those taking it back? The wealthy,” Aisha sobs.
“And you think Boko Haram will come here (pointing to the other lady by her side) and any one of us will say NO”?
As disturbing as her accounts may sound, the remarks by Aisha are not
so much in contrast to the statement issued by Brigadier General, Sani
Kukasheka Usman- Director Army Public Relations.
The military described the motive for some parents donating children
to Boko Haram as barbaric and unacceptable, but not for Hadiza.
Cases abound like hers, where the insurgents paid off the parents in
exchange for their daughters and in less diplomatic situations,
threatened with death. At every point of questioning Hadiza, she kept asking who is protecting them from the insurgents?
“It was discovered that most of these hapless minors were "donated"
to the terrorist sect by their heartless and misguided parents and
guardians, as part of their contribution to the perpetuation of the Boko
Haram terrorists' dastardly acts against the Nigerian society and
humanity” – The army statement read.
It appealed to Nigerians to have a responsibility and obligation to
“collectively mold our children and wards and define a better future for
them rather than condemning them to death by the criminal Boko Haram
terrorists and their sympathizers through suicide bombings”.
For Hadiza, the conversation isn’t much about a home, care, or
future, it is about the perils of living in the present “It is a war
zone here, you survive”, she tears up.
The story of Hadiza can be likened to most of the families in the
community, with no breadwinner; she begs to survive along with her kids
and refused to move to the IDP camp miles away.
“Staying out here means I can eat whenever I want to but in there you
eat once in a day and you’re not sure when the food will be served,”
she says.
“The place is chaotic” she added.
According to her, she was a one-time Biu resident before moving to
Maiduguri. Hadiza said her family narrowly escaped the night the
insurgents raided their community sometime in 2015 –“they burnt all the
houses and left with our farm produce.”
Speaking through an interpreter, Hadiza recounts, as she shrugs, in
attempts to put up resistance ignoring the stare from her husband who
looks on from the window of the crudely built shack where they reside.
Hadiza’s husband didn’t want her to grant this interview for fear of getting killed in the process, but she insisted.
Hadiza and her husband were farmers back in Biu – the farm provided
not only subsistence but also a little cash crop - are now too scared to
continue. She said the idea to begin a small farm to survive has again
been suspended as a result of the resurgence of terrorist’s activities.
Poverty and inequality have been blamed for most of the Boko Haram
crisis in the Northeast and Hadiza, also a victim of the insurgency
suffers the same fate of poverty – willing to trade her child for same
reasons.
Earlier in the year, the Borno State government warned of the massive
baby boom factory in Gwande Area of the state – women selling babies
for money to survive.
Oxfam, in its 2017 latest report entitled, “Inequality in Nigeria,
Exploring the Drivers,” presented an alarming picture of the Nigerian
economic situation, stating that 112 million Nigerians are living in
abject poverty.
Presenting a picture of extreme inequality in Nigeria, Oxfam argued
that the combined wealth of the five richest Nigerians put at about
$29.9 billion, could end extreme poverty in the country.
According to the report, economic inequality was a key factor behind
the conflict that had led to the severe food crisis in Nigeria’s
Northeast states, especially as the UN estimates that about five million
people in Northeast Nigeria will suffer from severe food shortages this
year.
Analysts have suggested varied reasons for the Boko Haram crisis but
poverty and inequality remain the prevalent factor. In northern Nigeria
for instance, unemployment and underemployment are still at the highest
levels as compared to southern Nigeria.
According to UNICEF report released in the year 2015, Nigeria
accounts for 10.5 million out of school children, of which the North
alone is responsible for 8 million of that number. For instance, the
former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, blamed
the rise of Boko Haram partly on the way revenues from the nation’s
federation account are shared.
Sanusi, now an Emir in Kano, argued that the sharing is done in such a manner that disadvantages the North.
"There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of
distribution of resources and the rising level of violence," he
maintained.
On 2nd August 2016, there was a crack in Boko Haram that led to two actions between Abubakar Shekau and Abu Musab al-Barnawi.
Security analysts believe that al-Barnawi is the son of Boko Haram’s
original founder, Mohammed Yusuf, and was previously the spokesman of
Boko Haram under Shekau. He is said to have been responsible for most of
the deadly attacks currently being carried out by the sect and the
abduction and killings of oil workers and some lecturers from the
University of Maiduguri.
“Al-Barnawi has the capacity to carry out attacks on a larger scale”
according to an Abuja based security expert who doesn’t want his name
mentioned in this report.
The resurgence of the terrorist activities forced 70 lecturers
teaching at the University of Maiduguri to resign and also forced then
acting-President Yemi Osinbajo, to order military chiefs to move to
Borno, in a bid to "scale up their efforts."
Though the Nigerian Army is offering a reward of the sum of Five
Hundred Thousand Naira (N500,000.00) to anybody who provides
information about suicide bombers. Young girls are allegedly still being
used in carrying out deadly attacks in the troubled Northeast region.
This article was written as part of the 2017 BudgIT Media Fellowship
Mercy Abang is a Freelance Journalist, focusing on development
Journalism
– She doubles as a media fixer with Sunday Times of London, BBC,
Aljazeera and a former Stringer with the Associated Press – She tweets
at@abangmercy.. She is the 2017 United Nations Journalism Fellow and budgIT Media fellow for 2017
