The Nigerian army claims to have killed the top bomb-maker for Boko Haram — and not a moment too soon, as the ISIS-affiliated terrorist gang has taken to using kidnapped and drugged women as suicide bombers.
According to the Nigerian military, the unnamed chief bomb-maker was also a high-ranking official in the Boko Haram organization. When Nigerian forces assaulted a terrorist camp in the Sambisa forest, the bomb-maker attempted to flee the scene, only to be killed by one of the bodyguards for Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.
Nigerian Colonel Sani Usman did not say whether the bodyguard shot the fleeing Boko Haram officer by accident or in disgust at his cowardice in running away.
According to Nigeria’s Vanguard, Usman said the career of Boko Haram’s new bomber-in-chief was short-lived, as the man was blinded by shrapnel when an Improvised Explosive Device he was preparing detonated by accident.
“There is no doubt, this development has dealt a devastating blow on the terrorists capacity on IED preparation, suicide bombing and their ability to sustain their criminal acts,” said Usman in a statement from the Nigerian military. “We would like to reassure the public that our troops are continuing with the clearance and rescue operations successfully in order to completely clear Boko Haram terrorists wherever they might be hiding.”
The BBC on Monday reported the horrifying experience of a 30-year-old Nigerian woman named Kahdija Ibrahim, who was waiting for a bus in the northeastern city of Maiduguri when she was abducted and drugged by two men suspected of being Boko Haram jihadis.
Ibramin said the men stripped off her clothes and fitted her with a suicide belt, telling her that she would be “going to do God’s work” by blowing herself up in a marketplace in the city of Kano.
Fortunately, on the way to Kano, the engine of the kidnappers’ car overheated, and Ibrahim was able to flee. Unfortunately, she said there was a 15-year-old girl in the car with her, also drugged, and her whereabouts are currently unknown.