Nigerian authorities are on the lookout for an entire Boko Haram squad comprising 50 female suicide bombers deployed in Maiduguri with a mission to kill at least 100,000 people before the end of December.
The deadly plot was revealed by a captured female suicide bomber, who during interrogation told the Nigerian authorities that there were still around 50 female suicide bombers loose in the city trained to carry out attacks across Maiduguri, VanGuard reported.
Maiduguri, also called Yerwa by locals, is the capital and the largest city of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria. The cityl has constantly been targetted by the Islamist militant group, which wants to establish a kingdom governed by the Muslim Sharia laws.
The arrested female suicide bomber was spotted by a civilian vigilante group at the University of Maiduguri on 2 December - within hours of two female suicide bombers blowing themselves up at a market in Maidiguri. The suicide attacks on 2 December coincidently took place at the same location where two other female suicide bombers killed 45, Al Jazeera reported.
Following the arrest of the suicide bombers at the university, the security in the campus was raised. Students are being made to go through strict searches by security personnel. Vehicles have been banned within the college premises.
Earlier in July, the Boko Haram had carried out a string of attacks using female suicide bombers in Kano, located 592 km east of Maiduguri. In the first attack, a female suicide bomber killed three people at the Kano State Polytechnic School.
On the same day, officials apprehended a 10-year-old girl after discovering that she was wearing a belt carrying explosives. Similarly a 15-year old female bomber killed people at a gas station and supermarket.
The use of female suicide bombers has created an increasing Islamophobia in Nigeria. Jacon Zenn, an Africa analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, told The Wall Street Journal, "Female suicide bombers has led to Nigerian soldiers lashing out at women in Islamic garb, playing into Boko Haram's argument that the country's secular army is fighting Islam."
