Father gives 13-year-old daughter to Boko Haram, girl claims

Sunday's attack is the latest in a wave by suspected Boko Haram militants. A bombing outside Kano's Central Mosque on 28 November killed at least 130.(Photo: Reuters)

A 13-year-old girl arrested in Kano, Nigeria reported Wednesday that her father gave her to Boko Haram militants.

The girl was ordered to detonate a suicide bomb, but refused. She recounted her experience with the terrorists in a news conference, according to Fox News.

The girl's father allegedly took her to a Boko Haram camp in Bauchi state, east of Kano. She said she witnessed people being buried alive, and that the men asked if her she wanted to go to paradise.

"When I was told I would have to die to enter paradise, that I would have to explode a bomb and die, I said I cannot do it," she explained.

Faced with the possibility of death, however, she agreed to have a vest rigged with explosives strapped to her chest.

"I was afraid to be buried alive," she admitted.

The girl suffered a leg wound and was taken to a hospital in a taxi. She left her suicide vest in the taxi cab, and the driver called the police. Police Superintendent Adenrele Shinaba reported that the girl was arrested in the hospital, and will remain in custody while an investigation continues.

A search is underway for the girl's father, whom she reported as a member of Boko Haram.

Numerous suicide bombings by women and girls have been committed in the past several months in Nigeria. On December 10, two girls detonated suicide bombs in a Kano textile market. Four people were killed and seven wounded, according to the Associated Press.