10-YEAR-OLD FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER ARRESTED IN KASTINA STATE WEARING EXPLOSIVE BELT

The Coordinator of the National Information
Centre (NIC), Mike Omeri told newsmen yesterday
[July 30] that security forces on Tuesday [July 29]
stopped a car in Katsina state and arrested three
suspected Boko Haram members.

The group included one male and two girls, aged
18 and 10. The older two tried to flee, according
to Omeri's statement.
The "10-year-old ... was discovered to have been
strapped with an explosive belt�, he said.
The chilling trend of deploying young women and
girls as bombers comes three-and-half months
after Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200
schoolgirls from the remote town of Chibok in
Bornu state. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau
boasted about the mass abductions in a video
during which he threatened to sell the girls as
slaves.
The Chibok abductions prompted a social media
campaign that went viral and drew unprecedented
global attention to Boko Haram's extremist
uprising, which the group says is aimed at
creating a strict Islamic state in the mainly
Muslim north.
In the weeks following the kidnappings, some
prominent jihadi websites had posts condemning
the Nigerian group's extreme tactics.
Nigeria has repeatedly insisted that it knows
where the girls are, while President Goodluck
Jonathan and top military officials have
suggested they will be brought home safely soon.
But little progress has been made in securing their
release while the violence appears to be
escalating across the north and centre of the
country.
Culled from AFP