Boko Haram Suicide Bomber, A Seven-Year-Old Girl, Kills Five, Injures 19


Boko Haram has been blamed for yet another suicide bombing. This time, the Islamic extremists strapped a bomb to a 7-year-old girl, killing her as well as five others, and injuring 19.

The Guardian reports that the Nigerian child was “thought to be seven” by witnesses. Injury and fatality totals have checked out with anonymous hospital officials, who spoke to the news site about the attack.

The bombing is yet another grim reminder of the need for Nigeria to organize against the terrorist group that represents a faction of radical Islam.

“It is necessary that there be full commitment from Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram,” Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said in a press conference on Sunday.

Goodluck Jonathan, the current president of Nigeria, admitted there may have been some underestimation of what Boko Haram was capable of.

“Probably at the beginning, we, and I mean myself and the team, we underrated the capacity of Boko Haram,” he said in comments to the newspaper ThisDay.

The bombing on Sunday, which occurred in Potiskum, was the second such attack “in or near the market where new and secondhand phones are sold and repaired,” the Guardian noted, adding that the first attack “occurred on 11 January, when two suicide bombers — one of whom appeared to be around 15 — blew themselves up outside the market killing six people and injuring 37 others.”

The girl that vigilantes are saying was responsible for this latest attack was previously turned away from the market by themselves and suspicious security guards, “whom witnesses said appeared around seven.”

“We sent her back four times, because given her age, she did not have anything to do in the market,” said Buba Lawan, a local vigilante leader.

In a previous story from the Inquisitr, Boko Haram was implicated in the deaths of 21 around the Nigerian village of Chibok, close to the area where they abducted 200 schoolgirls in 2014. It’s not clear whether the 7-year-old suicide bomber was one of the girls, though officials believe it to be likely.

What response, if any, do you think the U.S. should make to the attacks from Boko Haram? Would you consider them an Islamic terrorist group or does that show too much respect? Sound off in the comments section.

[Photo by Dan Kitwood / Staff / Getty Images]

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