A United States Mayor has described the 29 June suicide bombings in Gwoza, Local Government Area (LGA), Borno State by female teenagers, including one with a baby strapped to her back, as cowardly.
Mike Arnold the Mayor of Bianco, Texas, said the action is the “dying kick” of a horse, meant to draw undue attention, rather than a slap on the security in the Northeast.
He said in a statement that the blasts on soft targets by suspected Boko Haram elements showed that the terrorist organisation had been degraded and disorientated – “This weekend’s suicide bombing at a wedding in the community of Gwoza, Borno State, in Northeast Nigeria, was a desperate act of a defeated and discredited movement. While this is no consolation to families and friends of the victims, there is hope amid this tragedy. It shows that great progress has been made in the past year under the new administration of President Bola Tinubu. The fact that Boko Haram has resorted to soft opportunistic targets, using women and children, is a sign that this is the last kick of a dying horse.”
Arnold, also the founder of an international non-governmental organisation, Africa Arise International, which serves IDPs from Gwoza, said he had visited Nigeria 14 times since 2010, and that his last trip a few weeks ago revealed that security forces had done a great job clearing major highways in the North of bandits.
“I have spent years. Investigating first-hand the issues of persecution and violence and can say without any equivocation that Nigeria is a different country than what it was a year ago…the spirit of oppression has lifted, and there is a sense that things are on the right track.” He said.