MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA – Being a refugee is bad enough: imagine having to deal with a suicide bomber in your midst.
At any given time around the world there are a lot of people, and I mean a LOT of people, who have forcibly left their homes. This decision can be attributed to war, famine, natural disaster or a myriad other causes. Leaving is rarely a preferred action.
How big is this number? Well, according to the UN, as of the end of 2019 there were 79.5 MILLION people forcibly displaced and 45.7 MILLION internally displaced people (IDPs). That is a lot of misery to go around.
It must be added that some of these IDPs are made to move by terrorist groups. Nigeria is a good example. According to the International Organization of Migration (IOM), as of May 2021 there were more than two million such people in that country’s northeastern region alone. The bulk of these were forced to flee their homes because of actions by jihadi groups such as Boko Haram (BH) and Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP).
And if being on the run was not bad enough, how much worse can it get when the terrorists infiltrate even these communities to carry out an attack?
On this day in 2015
A 20-year old female suicide bomber disguised as a refugee detonated her load while people were being screened by officials in Maiduguri. The majority of the casualties, eight dead and seven wounded, were women and children seeking shelter from BH.
Almost immediately after the Chibok kidnappings…Boko Haram’s use of women suicide bombers skyrocketed.
Jason Warner, assistant professor at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating. Terrorists’ use of the vulnerable to kill is below evil.
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