Female Suicide Bombers: A Terrorist Group’s Hidden Weapon

A woman held a baby as she detonated a bomb over the weekend in northern Nigeria, killing them both and at least half a dozen others, the local authorities said, putting an abrupt end to a rare lull in the violence that has plagued the region for over a decade.

She was joined by two other female suicide bombers in Nigeria’s Borno State who killed at least 32 and wounded dozens more in a series of bombings, according to Vice President Kashim Shettima. The attacks, experts said, demonstrated the complex and deadly role women can play in terrorist insurgencies like Boko Haram.

The attackers struck three locations — a wedding celebration, an area near a hospital and a funeral service for the victims of the earlier bombing, said Barkindo Saidu, the director general of Borno State’s emergency management agency. The attacks took place in Gwoza city, an area formerly controlled by Boko Haram for 15 years.

Though no organization has yet claimed responsibility, the attacks are similar to previous suicide bombings carried out by Boko Haram, an Islamist group responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of over two million people in the region. Boko Haram made headlines in 2014 after kidnapping more than 200 schoolgirls.

Women are sent to death because they ‘blend in.’

Armed groups often use women as suicide bombers because they consider them less valuable to the organization and more tactically advantageous, experts said.

“The women arouse less suspicious, and they are able to penetrate targets more deeply,” said Mia Bloom, a professor of communication at Georgia State University and an expert on female suicide bombers. Professor Bloom said terrorist groups often use women when targeting civilians or civic infrastructure because they “blend in” and are less likely to be perceived as threats.