A female suicide bomber who was recruited to take part in last Tuesday’s bomb attacks in Dikwa, Borno State, has explained why she decided not to detonate her own explosive.

Close to 60 people perished in the Dikwa attack after two young female suicide bombers detonated themselves at a refugee camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Eyewitnesses said the two bombers detonated their improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at a kitchen in a refugee camp. The explosives went off at 5.45 p.m. as refugees in the camp queued up for breakfast.
 
A third would-be suicide bomber, who did not detonate the explosives strapped to her body, was arrested by some civilians working with security agents as she ran from the scene of the mayhem.
 
One source, who was among a group that caught the young woman, told SaharaReporters that the teenager was weeping bitterly and asked people to stay away from her, disclosing that an IED was strapped to her body.
 
According to a source, when the young woman was asked why she failed to detonate her explosives, she said she was shocked to see so many people dead, adding that she did not want her parents, who were in the camp, to be killed.
 
A Borno State government official, Ahmed Satomi, also confirmed the incident while speaking to reporters on Wednesday at the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.
 
“One of the suicide bombers was arrested and confessed,” said Mr. Satomi. He added that the arrested teenager confessed to soldiers that she declined to detonate her bomb in order not to have a hand in an operation that might kill her parents.
 
The IDP camp in Dikwa is the largest refugee camp in Borno State, with more than 53,000 people across five local government areas staying there. The online news platform learned that 58 people were confirmed dead in last Tuesday’s attacks. In addition, 78 people sustained serious injuries when the twin blasts hit the camp.