Africa: The double tragedy of "bomb-carrying" girls

(Baonghean) - Little girls are kidnapped, imprisoned, abused and turned into human bombs, spreading fear among people in African countries under the rampant terrorism of the Boko Haram branch (linked to the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS). For those who have been rescued, is it luck or the beginning of another tragedy?

Children at Maiduguri refugee camp in northeastern Nigeria, the hardest hit area by the Boko Haram terrorist group. Photo: AFP.

When "bomb man" is the savior

In the memoirs that Fati, a victim who returned from the dead, confided to CNN, the questions and answers in the place that was likened to “hell on earth” always followed a pre-existing pattern. They – elements of the notorious terrorist group Boko Haram often asked: “Who wants to be a suicide bomber?”.

And then, the young girls will fight each other “let me, let me…”. Everyone wants to be “chosen” to carry out suicide bombings, not because they are brainwashed by the violent methods of the kidnappers, but because of the constant hunger and sexual abuse, combined with the terror of the constant shelling day and night, the underage girls cannot bear it any longer.

Three-quarters of child bombers are girls.

They wanted to find a way out, wanted to run away and were forced to seek help in an involuntary way, just because if they planted bombs on them, the young girls could seek help from the army soldiers, who knows the bombs could be defused and they could be saved from their life of imprisonment.

Fati was just 16 years old, one of hundreds of girls kidnapped and forced into marriage by the world’s most bloodthirsty terrorist organization. When Boko Haram members attacked the family’s village in northeastern Nigeria in 2014, her parents spent a meager $40 to “buy” safety for their two eldest sons, and could only watch helplessly as their daughter fell into the terrorists’ clutches.

In Boko Haram’s stronghold in the Sambisa jungle, girls even younger than Fati are kidnapped, forced into marriage, imprisoned and sexually abused by men who call themselves “husbands”.

In April 2014, the kidnapping of about 270 Nigerian schoolgirls shocked the world, sparking a wave of social media campaigns #BringBackOurGirls, which has now brought to many people the most basic images of the crimes of abusing women and girls by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

Updated statistics from UNICEF show that the number of innocent children being turned into “human bombs” in four countries: Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, where Boko Haram’s terrorist campaign has been rampant for the past two years, has increased dramatically, from four children in 2014 to 44 in 2015. According to UNICEF, three-quarters of the children who became “human bombs” are girls.

Double tragedy

The alarm bells rang when the number of suicide attacks whose victims and perpetrators were poor children led to the birth and active operation of a multinational coalition to put pressure on the terrorist organization, a small branch of IS.

The aforementioned Sambisa Forest has been repeatedly hit by heavy airstrikes, with the Nigerian military conducting relentless raids. Over the past year, these raids have freed hundreds of women and girls held by Boko Haram, hoping to reintegrate them back into society.

Members of the Bring Back Our Girls movement protest in Nigeria on January 14, demanding the release of girls kidnapped in 2014 in Chibok. Photo: AFP.

However, now that the once Boko Haram stronghold of Gwoza has fallen under the military’s machine guns, another growing concern for many is that the more resounding the coalition’s victories become, the more Boko Haram is likely to turn to using young girls as deadly weapons to serve its sinister plots.

In the eyes of terrorists, girls are the “perfect suicide bombers”. The reason for this assertion is that they can easily hide explosive devices under long veils, or simply put them in baskets and force them to wear them on their heads, before detonating them with remote control devices.

And so, they have intentionally turned the most vulnerable in society into the greatest obsession and fear for everyone, leaving crisscrossing scars in their inherently immature souls.

After being rescued from the den of crime, instead of being welcomed and comforted in the loving arms of society, the label of “wife of Boko Haram” that haunts the victims can inflict a terrible tragedy on these innocent girls when they have to face wary and evasive looks from everyone around them.

People are wondering if Boko Haram has secretly allowed the girls to leave, to continue the bloody bombings they have witnessed? Are the children being brainwashed by terrorists and instilled into their souls the terrible things that IS often does to “child soldiers”? What is the meaning of freedom when they have to suffer the coldness and ostracism of society, which is no different from the “double tragedy” that these young lives are going through.

The number of girls being turned into "human" bombs is increasing.

The above issue is also what the UNICEF representative in Cameroon is concerned about:

“Girls are victims, but now they are under the suspicion of the whole society. If we do not change this way of thinking soon, there will be long-term consequences that are difficult to predict. Trust between communities, victims and the government will be eroded.”

To avoid such foreseeable consequences, perhaps more cooperation and support from international organizations, especially voices protecting children's rights and interests, is needed to soon give them back a future they deserve.

Thu Giang