Boy 14 blown up by explosive device mistaken as scrap metal in Borno village

A 14 year old boy was killed and two others seriously injured as a bomb he mistook to be a metal scrap exploded.

The incident occured in Banki town, Bama Local Government Area of Borno State on Wednesday, 21 December, 2022.

Sources told Zagazola Makama, a Security Analyst and Counter Insurgency Expert in the Lake Chad, that the young boy and two of his friends unknowingly picked the IED when they went in search for scrap metals in the outskirt of Banki. On their return, the young boy attempted to destroy the object by hitting it with an iron; when that didn't work, he took the bomb to where his mother was cooking and placed it on fire with the intention to melt and dismantle it.

Unfortunately, the bomb exploded, shattering his body into pieces.

The incident once again raised concerns about the safety of children in the so-called “liberated communities”, especially now that the state government is returning thousands of internally displaced persons to their communities.