A fifth of Boko Haram suicide bombers are children as girls volunteer to escape rape

Nigerian refugee Fati, 16, (not her real name to protect her identity) at the Minawao refugee camp in northern Cameroon 

Young girls snatched from their villages by fighters from the world's deadliest terror group are volunteering to be suicide bombers to escape hunger and rape.

For the thousands of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, having explosives strapped to their bodies or hidden in a basket on their heads is the only chance of escape.

The number of children used in suicide bombings by the Nigerian terror group has risen 11-fold from four in 2014 to 44 in 2015 according to the UN.

Three quarters of all child bombers are girls, the BBC reported.

Fati, 16, who managed to flee to the Minawo refugee camp in Camaroon after being kidnapped and raped by Boko Haram fighters told CNN the girls would compete with each other to be picked for the deadly mission.


She said: "They came to us to pick us. They would ask, 'Who wants to be a suicide bomber?'

"The girls would shout, 'me, me, me.' They were fighting to do the suicide bombings."

But instead of choosing death, Fati said volunteering for these missions was often the only hope these young girls had of getting away.

She added: "If they give them a suicide bomb, then maybe they would meet soldiers, tell them, 'I have a bomb on me' and they could remove the bomb. They can run away."

In 2015 there were 151 bombings carried out in Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger, compared to just 32 the year before.

According to the UN's report, Cameroon has the highest number of child suicide attacks, some involving children who are as young as eight.

The girls are often drugged and the bombs detonated remotely.

The rise in suicide attacks is being linked to the increasing desperation of Boko Haram fighters who are being driven out of their strongholds in the Sambisa Forest by coalition bombing raids.

Although some fighters are defecting, many more are choosing increasingly brutal ways to fight back.

Fati, who was kidnapped and raped in 2014, was herself freed when her fighter 'husband' defected and tried to flee over the border.

But for the girls who do escape, life can be incredibly difficult as they are shunned and ostracised by civilians who are worried they could be hiding bombs.

Mohammed Amodu, a refugee leader told CNN: "If we see a strange girl, she may be a suicide bomber. Perhaps their mind is with Boko Haram."

The UN report was released nearly two years after the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign was launched to save 276 girls seized by Boko Haram from the village ofChibok .

Despite international attention, the girls have not yet been found.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language, started fighting to form a caliphate in 2009 and is affiliated with ISIS.

The seven-year insurgency, which has mainly affected north-eastern Nigeria as well as its neighbours around Lake Chad, has left some 17,000 people dead.

Unicef says up to 1.3 million children have been forced from their homes across Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger.

In 2014, Boko Haram was ranked as the deadliest terrorist group in the world, killing over 6,600 people, compared to 6,100 who died at the hands of ISIS, according to the Global Terrorism Database.

Culled from Mirror UK