Shocking: How I almost became a suicide bomber – Boko Haram survivor narrates
– The number of the child bombers used by the Boko Haram increased and is 11 times higher than last year;
– Fati, one of the survivors, narrates that the girls become suicide bombers as they want to run away from Boko Haram
– Unicef relesses alarming report Beyond Chibok as Nigeria approaches the second anniversary of the kidnap of 219 schoolgirls
Fati was kidnapped in 2014 and taken to a Boko Haram camp in the Sambisa forest
The use of the child bombers by the deadly Boko Haram sect is on the rise according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
The little girls, who are often drugged, were behind three-quarters of such attacks committed by insurgents in Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad.
Estimated number of children used in suicide attacks in four countries is 44 this year in comparison with four attacks in 2014.
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However, the group lost its captured territories to the Nigerian army.
Sixteen-year-old girl, Fati, was abducted when fighters from Boko Haram descended on her village in northeast Nigeria in 2014.
Fati’s parents couldn’t do anything to save their girl as they had already spent a precious 8,000 naira (roughly $40) to smuggle her two older brothers to safety.
Fati’s gold bracelets, a gift from her mother.
After the terrorist raped her for the first time, Fati was given her a wedding present – a purple and brown dress with a matching headscarf that she would wear for the next two years while under his control, escaped from hideout to hideout in order to evade Nigerian army.
The girl recalls: “They came to us to pick us. They would ask, ‘Who wants to be a suicide bomber?’ The girls would shout, ‘me, me, me.’ They were fighting to do the suicide bombings.”
“It was just because they want to run away from Boko Haram. If they give them a suicide bomb, then maybe they would meet soldiers, tell them, ‘I have a bomb on me’ and they could remove the bomb. They can run away.
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“We said, ‘No, we are too small; we don’t want to get married. So they married us by force.
“Young girls fighting to strap on a bomb, not because they were brainwashed by their captors’ violent indoctrination methods but because the relentless hunger and sexual abuse – coupled with the constant shelling – became too much to bear.”
According to the alarming report of the Unicef up to 1.3 million children have been forced from their homes across four countries: Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger.
It has been released as Nigeria approaches the second anniversary of the abduction of more than 200 girls from Chibok town.
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The report, Beyond Chibok, says that boys kidnapped and recruited into ranks of the sect are forced to attack their own families to demonstrate their loyalty.
Girls are exposed to severe abuse including sexual violence and forced marriage to fighters.
The organisation says more than 1,800 schools have been shut, damaged, looted, set on fire or used to shelter those left homeless in north-eastern Nigeria and Cameroon.
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