Summary: Recent Incidences
- On 27th June 2015, Nigerian OSINT reported that two female suicide bombers were killed by one of their own bombs on their way to the city of Maiduguri.
- On 22nd June 2015, 30 people were killed at crowded mosque when two young female suicide bombers blew themselves up in northeast Nigeria.
- On 22nd June 2015, Kenyan authorities intercepted a recruitment process and arrested two men along the Kenya- Tanzania border trying to lure Kenyan women to join Al Shabaab.
- On June 9, 2015, two would-be attackers died while making their way to Maiduguri, Nigeria.
- In March 2015, three young women – two Kenyans and one from Tanzania – were arrested en route to Somalia, where they were allegedly headed to join extremist group al-Shabaab.
What Contributes to Increased Extremism among Women?
Traditionally women have joined extremism in the name of becoming jihadi brides. The driving factors in the extremism are many:
- Romanticizing of jihadism and the whole teenage fantasies of becoming brides causes the excitement that drives the women towards extremism. Becoming radical becomes the catch for romantic benefits.
- Quest for political and social identity. Intelligence has shows that once recruited and on satisfying particular indoctrination requirements in the terror cells, the women ascent the ladders to become recruiters on the internet.
- Peer pressure. Intelligence sources have revealed that most women who joined al-Shabaab were between 20 and 25 years old. This is a vulnerable age to peer pressure.
It is only counter-radicalization programs imparted to young women that will help open their insight into what awaits girls joining terrorist groups. In actuality, it ends at romantic fantasies and welcomes them to a world of brutality including slavery, rape, beating and imminent death.
