19-year-old girl's suicide bombing mission fails in Borno

Troops of 251 Task Force Battalion of the Nigerian Army

According to a statement by the Army, the girl, identified as Shaidatu Adamu, was arrested by troops when she attempted to infiltrate Maiduguri to detonate her suicide vest.

She confessed to troops that she was from Gwoza, Borno and had been in Sambisa Forest with Boko Haram terrorists for about three years.

Adamu was transferred to 7 Military Intelligence Brigade in Maiduguri for further investigations after the troops of the 47 Explosive Ordinance Device Battalion were invited to diffuse the explosives.

Suicide vest ece-auto-gen

While the Army's statement did not clearly state Adamu's involvement with the terrorist group, it's not unlikely that she's another in a long list of abducted hostages forced to carry out suicide bomb attacks on civilian and military targets. The group has abducted more than 1,000 children in Nigeria since 2013, according to a UNICEF report.

Between April 2011 and June 2017, the terrorist group used a record 244 female suicide bombers to attack in the northeast region where it majorly operates.

While some of the suicide bombers may have willingly signed up, many are believed to be forced to strap bombs to their bodies and carry out attacks.

Some have been known to run to security operatives to assist in detonating their vests while others detonate when confronted by operatives.

Since the terrorist group's insurgency escalated in 2009, tens of thousands have been killed with millions also displaced and scattered over internally displaced people's camps across the country.