Defenceless Against Unspeakable Terror

"She said she was scared because she knew she would kill people, but she was also frightened of going against the instructions of the men who brought her to the camp."
"Women, children, men and aged persons all died. I cannot say the exact number as some cannot be counted because the bodies were all mangled."
Modu Awami, self-defence fighter, Abuja, Nigeria

The girl's companions blew themselves up in the Dikwa Camp, in Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria, killing at least 58 STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

"She confessed to our security operatives that she was worried if she went ahead and carried out the attack that she might kill her own father, who she knew was in the camp."
"[The girl tried to persuade her companions to abandon the mission] but she said she could not convince the two others to change their minds."
Algoni Lawan, spokesman, Ngala local government

Boko Haram enjoys its killing sprees, instilling trepidation and fear in the hearts of Nigerians whose government seems incapable of mustering sufficiently well armed troops to deploy for the protection of villagers from the ravages of the Islamist insurgency. The kidnapping of children and of women and of teens in particular seems a favourite ploy of theirs, since they excel also in threatening and forcing the young people to become suicide bombers.

Most latterly, three teenage girls were given precise instructions not to return to their camp until their work was finished. Perhaps two of the girls felt that they might miraculously survive the blasts that their suicide vests would occasion, killing only those surrounding them, and they might be spared. The third girl knew better, attempted to persuade the other two not to set off their vests but to try to escape instead as she apprehensively planned to do.

While they decided -- likely through fear of retribution from their captors should they not carry their instructions through to completion -- that they would proceed despite their fears, she proceeded to divest herself of the suicide vest and fled. They had been instructed to enter the Dikwa refugee camp in northeast Nigeria and to set off the explosives they wore. This is just what two of the child bombers did, destroying the lives of 58 people.

The runaway girl was found by self-defence forces and confessed to them what had occurred, proving her story by leading them directly to the vest she had discarded. She is now in custody after having given officials information about additional plans to bomb other areas, according to Satomi Ahmed, chairman of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency.

This young girl is only one among the thousands of kidnapped people whom the Boko Haram jihadis turn into living weapons. Some of the suicide bombs are rigged to be remotely detonated so that if this  young girl had been carrying one of those the choice to discard it and remove herself and others from immediate danger would not have been hers to make. In this instance, on this occasion, she was fortunate.

Far less fortunate those who carry through their instructions through force of fearful intimidation, losing their own lives in the process and taking with them those unfortunate enough to have been in the near vicinity. In Dikwa, body parts and corpses littered the scene in one of Africa's largest, most populous, wealthiest countries incapable of fending for itself and protecting its vulnerable populations from heinous Islamist slaughterers.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) mostly women and children stand waiting for food at Dikwa Camp, in Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria, on 2 February, 2016