A wave of suicide attacks in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday left at least 18 people dead and 42 injured, targeting a wedding, a hospital, and a funeral. The attacks, carried out by women with explosive devices, struck the town of Gwoza, which lies across the border from Cameroon.
In the first attack, a woman carrying a baby detonated explosives in the middle of a wedding ceremony, according to Borno State police spokesman Nahum Kenneth Daso. The second attack targeted a hospital in the same town, while the third attack took place at the funeral for victims of the wedding blast.
The Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) reported that 18 people were killed, including children, men, women, and pregnant women. Nineteen seriously injured individuals were taken to Maiduguri, the regional capital, while 23 others awaited evacuation.
The attacks are attributed to Boko Haram, a jihadist terrorist organization that has plagued the region for over a decade. While the group has not claimed responsibility for these specific attacks, its history of violence in the region makes it the prime suspect.
Boko Haram was formed in 2002 by the late Muslim cleric Mohammed Yusuf. In 2009, it launched an insurgency and a campaign of terror against the Nigerian government, security forces, and civilians. By 2015, the group had captured territory the size of Belgium in northeastern Nigeria.
Although the Nigerian military dislodged Boko Haram from most of its controlled territory since 2015, the group has continued to operate in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. In 2015, Boko Haram declared allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and began calling itself ISIS in West Africa (ISIS-WA).
Following a leadership change decision by ISIS in 2016, Boko Haram split into two factions: one led by Abubakar Shekau, continuing as Boko Haram, and the other as ISIS-WA. In recent years, Boko Haram has been engaged in fighting with ISIS-WA, the Nigerian military, and regional forces under the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF).
Despite these challenges, Boko Haram has maintained a limited safe haven in northeast Nigeria. Between 2009 and 2023, violence associated with Boko Haram and ISIS-WA has resulted in an estimated 40,000 deaths, mostly civilians, and displaced as many as 3 million people. The conflict has spread to neighboring Niger, Cameroon, and Chad, prompting the formation of a regional military coalition to fight the militants.
Boko Haram primarily funds itself through criminal activities like looting, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, bank robberies, cattle theft, and hired assassinations. The group has also seized vehicles, weapons, ammunition, and supplies from the Nigerian and Nigerian militaries, and acquired other arms from the local black market.
Despite losing ground in recent years, jihadists continue to attack rural communities in Nigeria on a regular basis. Over the course of the insurgency, Boko Haram has repeatedly deployed young women and girls to carry out suicide attacks. The group has carried out raids, killing men and kidnapping women who venture outside the town in search of firewood and acacia fruits.
