Authorities
in Cameroon on Monday poured doubt on a would-be suicide bomber’s claim that
she is one of the 276 Nigerian school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists
in 2014.
“We don’t
think that she was one of the girls (kidnapped) from Chibok,” an administration
official who requested anonymity told AFP, citing inconsistencies over her
apparent age.
The girl
in question is one of two would-be suicide bombers arrested in northern
Cameroon on Friday wearing 12-kilogramme (26-pound) explosives belts.
Less than
a month before the second anniversary of the brazen kidnapping which shook the
world, 219 students from the northern Nigerian town of Chibok remain missing
and there are few signs that the government is making progress on finding and
securing their release.
Nigeria is
planning to send a delegation, including Chibok parents, to Cameroon to meet
the girl, and the presidency said late Monday that people from the town were
being shown her photograph to see if they recognised her.
“The girl
was found to be heavily drugged and bore several injuries on her body. The
girl’s health condition had delayed her movement to the far north regional
capital of Cameroon, Maroua, as earlier planned,” the presidency said.
“Pictures of the arrested suspected bomber obtained by Nigerian officials
indicated that the girl was likely a minor, between ages nine to 12 years,” the
statement added.
The “Bring
Back Our Girls” advocacy group said that the youngest of those kidnapped in
2014 was 16 years old at the time.
The
Nigerian presidency continued: “Considering the well-known guidelines regarding
the publication of photography of minors, we have decided to forward the
pictures of the suspected bomber to the Murtala Muhammed Foundation (a
non-profit) for verification by interested Chibok community stakeholders.”
– Bombers ‘often drugged’ –
Boko Haram
has carried out suicide bombings often using girls as part of its armed
campaign to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
Midjiyawa
Bakari, governor of Cameroon’s North Region had already on Saturday voiced
doubts about the claim by one of the two girls arrested that she had been part
of the mass kidnapping.
“We are
treating this statement with caution,” he said, adding that such would-be
attackers “are often drugged and can say anything”.
Nigerian
President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu on Sunday echoed those
doubts, noting that the girl appeared too young to be one of the kidnapped
girls.
The
Nigerian presidency said Monday that the girl’s accomplice appeared to be in
her thirties, after earlier reports that the other bomber was also aged around
ten. Both spoke the local Kanuri language.
Boko Haram
has suffered substantial setbacks in recent months in the face of a
counteroffensive by national armies from the region.
At least
17,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram launched an insurgency in 2009
to carve out an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.
More than
2.6 million people have fled their homes since the start of the violence but
some of the internally displaced have returned home after troops began the fight-back
last year and recaptured territory.
A regional
force involving troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin is to deploy
to fight the Islamists.
Source:
Vanguard News
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