Three years after twin suicide attacks by female Boko Haram jihadists killed at least three and injured 13 worshippers in a mosque on the outskirts of Gwoza, Borno State, four women suspected to be members of the group, on Saturday, killed more than 20 persons in the area.
Within three hours on 29 June, the women detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at various locations in Mararaban Gwoza and Pulka. A factional Boko Haram leader, Ali Ngulde, controls the territories from his Mandara Mountain camp.
The Director-General of Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Barkindo Saidu, confirmed the attacks in an official statement but estimated the deaths at 18.
“So far, we have 18 deaths, comprising children, male adults, female adults, and pregnant women, while the 19 persons that are seriously injured were conveyed to Maiduguri in four ambulances,” Mr Saidu said on Saturday.
He said 23 survivors were waiting for military escort in the Medical Regimental Services (MRS).
“I have mobilized emergency drugs to complement the shortage of drugs in Gwoza,” Mr Saidu said late on Saturday.
It was gathered that the death toll increased to 21 on Sunday. Locals who spoke to correspondents said the attacks were staged despite the presence of military operatives.
It was around 3 p.m. and more than 50 wedding guests were gathered in an open space for a reception at Central Area, close to Central Primary School in Mararaban Gwoza, when a woman with a girl child walked in and detonated an explosive that killed at least four persons and injured many others.
The explosive also killed the little girl she came with.
“She came as a beggar,” said Musa Umar, a shop owner in the area.
Mr Umar said he had planned to attend the event.
“I wanted to go to the reception after they returned from Fathia’s wedding, but something came up,” he said. “I was in my shop when I heard a loud explosion from the axis. When we got there, I saw a lot of bodies, including minors killed and injured by the bomb.
“Those who witnessed the incident said she came as a beggar with a girl child,” Mr Umar continued, adding that the suicide bomber threw herself to the ground for the IED to explode.
Those killed in the first attacks were identified as Mallam Abba, a petrol attendant at a local fuel station; Musa Leader, a teacher at Government Girls Secondary School, Gwoza; Hamisu Umar, a recent university graduate, and a humanitarian aid worker, Danjuma Garawa.
An amateur video taken after the attack shows the shredded remains of the suicide bomber and the minor girl. At least five other victims could be seen lying helplessly in their own blood.
Another resident, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, narrated how the second suicide bomber attacked security operatives enforcing a 24-hour curfew imposed by the state government.
“They were asking her where she was going but she ran towards them and blew herself up,” the source said, adding the incidents claimed the lives of four civilians as well as a soldier and a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF).
The third attack was recorded close to a shopping mall in Mararaban Gwoza and the fourth one at a funeral [janaza] prayer for some of those killed in the first attack.
Hamisu Haruna, a resident of Hausari Street along Mararaban Gwoza, said his cousin [Harisu Umar] died in the first attack.
“In our area, Hausari, we lost three minors and an adult. Two among the minors, a male and female both aged 13 and another female aged 17,” Mr Haruna told reporters. “The other adult, a male, aged about 19.”
According to Mr Haruna, a total of 21 people were buried in the town. “Some people died while being conveyed to Maiduguri for medical treatment,” he said.
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Although no terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack, it was understood that such operational tactics are mostly deployed by Boko Haram, otherwise known as Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS).
“It has to be JAS,” Vincent Foucher, a leading terrorism expert and researcher studying patterns of insurgency in North-east Nigeria, told reporters, saying they had not carried out such attacks for a while.
Mr Foucher further explained in an X post that JAS may not claim responsibility because it is “much weaker at claiming (responsibility)” than its rival group, Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), a franchise of Islamic States (IS) in West Africa.
“ISWAP has NEVER used female suicide bombers,” Mr Foucher clarified, noting that Boko Haram is “just a few kilometres from Gwoza, up the hills.”
Previous incidents, including circumstances that led to factional splits in Boko Haram, are pointers that the group was responsible for the recent attacks.
It became clear that the use of women for suicide attacks was one of the reasons Islamic State (IS) fell out with the late Abubakar Shekau, a former Boko Haram leader.
In one of his research works that focused on analysing Mr Shekau’s last audio released before his death, Mr Foucher said one of the factors that influenced the 2016 split was because the idiosyncratic terror leader “refused to follow the guidance of the IS — allowing suicide attacks…”
Mr Shekau, who hitherto received monetary and other support from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and IS, exploited abducted women and children to carry out suicide attacks at the height of the insurgency in the North-east region.
A 2017 research work published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point revealed that Boko Haram used more than 200 female suicide bombers between 2014 and 2017.
“Of the 434 total number of Boko Haram’s suicide bombers, 244 of the bombers are identified as female — a rate of at least 56% of bombers in total and 72.2% of bombers with an identified gender,” the authors stated.
A few hours after President Bola Tinubu vowed to deal with the perpetrators of the bomb attacks, it was reported that two suspected female suicide bombers were arrested. Various news outlets that published the report attributed the claim to a local government official.
When contacted, the police spokesperson in Borno State, Nahum Kenneth, said the command had not received any report about the arrest. He advised that the military be contacted for confirmation.
However, Ajemasu Jingina, a spokesperson for the Nigerian Army in Borno, could not be reached.
Mr Jingina, a lieutenant-colonel, did not respond to calls and an SMS sent to him.
However, a Borno-based terrorism researcher who wished not to be named told PREMIUM TIMES that there are always “scapegoats in situations like this.”
The researcher, not disputing the arrests, explained that the women arrested may be innocents “because there is no way you can arrest somebody with an IED vest without an explosion.”
He said many times, people had been wrongly arrested for similar offences and later released after thorough investigations.
