The sequence of terror attacks targeting the youths

Evidently the war on terror in all its manifestations is having the youth as its main casualties, last week's Manchester arena terror incident is a typical example of terrors cruel brunt on the younger generations.

On one end of the extremist’s weapon was 22 year old suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, whilst the other, a teenage pop audience that left 22 dead including an 8 year old girl and injured 119.

Interestingly, the concert was by a 23 year old pop artist drawing dozens of teenage girls and many children.

The Manchester incident is not an isolated case, On the night of Friday 13th November 2015, in one of the attracts on Paris, a group of three attackers who averagely aged 26 years, stormed a rock concert living 89 dead.

Earlier that year, heavily armed gunmen, among them a former law student at the University of Nairobi, raided Garrisa University, killing at least 147 people, mostly students, some preparing for their exams.

The Al-Qaida affiliated Al-shaabab claimed responsibility for the attack. Of interest to this author is the fact that Al Shaadab is Arabic, meaning the youth, a terrorist cell that started of as a youth wing of the then Islamic courts union.

The terror group has since ran radicalization campaigns targeting youths in slum areas and more recently it seeks to recruit university students and resent graduates to ensure a carder of educated and technically capable leaders to carry out attacks.

It's not surprising then that youths between 15 to 18 years of age make up about 20 % of all suicide bombers.

Why this demography, why this uninitiated loot, why teens? Why should a 12 year old attempt to bomb a Christmas market and town hall as was the case in Germany last December.

Could the case be that they are not solidly 'conditioned' in morals and ethics that they easily fall for extremist propaganda, one that leads as many as 17 French teenagers to their death beds fighting in Syria and Iraq or a South African youth to traverse epic distances chasings extremist phantoms.

Of course the easier explanation is that these group is highly tech savvy hence easily disposed to extremist propaganda; in their search for ideological identity.

Propaganda which is disseminated effectively through social media platforms and messaging applications where this teens are encouraged to plan attacks mainly against 'disbelievers'.

Equally this enterprising merchants of terror are a concise armory since they easily allay suspicion on the part of security and enforcement authorities.

But must they die? Clearly getting the youth and teenagers out of this terror equation is a sure hack at the very root of extremism.

Meanwhile more than 100 girls were abducted from their school in the North East Nigerian town of Chibok, 3 years ago, by militant Islamist group Boko Haram.