Nigerian police apprehended aspiring female suicide bombers on December 2, who told authorities there are still over 50 aspiring female suicide bombers scattered in the northwest city of Maiduguri, planning on when to strike. The woman said the bombers were trained to kill 100,000 people before the end of December.
The vigilante group JTF arrested her at the University of Maiduguri. The female bombers were given orders in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, which has been the capital of jihadist activity in the nation since the founding of terrorist group Boko Haram. Boko Haram terrorizes Borno State on an almost daily basis; authorities believe the group is behind the attacks. Jacon Zenn, an Africa analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, told The Wall Street Journal “female suicide bombers has led to Nigerian soldiers lashing out at women in Islamic garb, playing into Boko Haram’s argument that the country’s secular army is fighting Islam.”
The arrest raised tensions at the university. Students must comply with strict searches by security personnel. Professors are the only ones allowed to drive their cars on campus.
Female suicide bombers terrorized Kano, which is 368 miles east of Maiduguri, for a week in late July. One female suicide bomber killed three people at the Kano State Polytechnic School. On the same day, officials arrested a 10-year-old girl after discovering that she was wearing a belt carrying explosives. Other bombers killed people at a gas station, supermarket, and a temporary university site. The bomber in the latter case was only 15-years-old.
On November 25, two suicide bombers, one female, killed over 50 people at a market in Maiduguri in the late morning. The woman detonated her bombs first and her male companion blew up when rescue personal arrived. Just two days later, two female suicide bombers killed 78 people in a similar fashion at a popular market in Maiduguri. One woman exploded inside the market, but the other waited until rescuers arrived.