The Boko Haram Takfiri militants operating in Nigeria force kidnapped children and women into acting as “suicide bombers” in the country’s restive northern areas, analysts say.

According to a Tuesday report by Bloomberg, Malte Liewerscheidt, a senior Africa analyst with UK-based risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, revealed new tactics used by the Boko Haram militants in their terror operations and said the extremists coerce female abductees into carrying out “suicide bombings.”

“Boko Haram relies upon women and children to carry out suicide bombings because they can easily and effectively infiltrate crowded urban environments and bypass security checkpoints without arousing suspicion,” the analyst said.

“It highlights the ability of Boko Haram to access, indoctrinate and utilize all elements of society,” he added.

Another Britain-based security group Drum Cussac also highlighted the young age of those carrying out bombings in Nigeria, saying the youthfulness of the bombers suggests Boko Haram has selected them from its “pool of kidnap victims and coerced into carrying out” bombings.



Abductees-turned-bombers



In the past week, a six-year old girl detonated explosive materials she was carrying at a market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least 20 people, the report said.

The report further said two other Nigerian girls set off bombs in the town of Potiskum, killing at least seven and injuring 48 others.

Militants belonging to the Takfiri group “pointed at a ditch and told me that I am going to be killed there” if I refuse to carry explosives and set off them, Zaharau Babangida, a 13-year-old Nigerian girl, said.

Babangida was arrested by the Nigerian police on December 10 when two other girls detonated the explosive materials they were carrying and killed at least six people in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano.



Boko Haram militancy



Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government.

The terrorist group has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of Nigeria which have claimed the lives of thousands of people since 2009.

The Takfiri militants have also kidnapped hundreds of Nigerian women in recent months.