Female members of Boko Haram are now used for key roles as against widespread perception that they are mainly used as cooks, sex slaves and suicide bomber.

On Monday, researchers say while men dominate in leadership and training roles, women may outnumber them in other senior roles, such as recruiters and intelligence operatives.

According to a new report based on interviews with 119 former Boko Haram members, four in 10 female respondents said they served as soldiers – compared with 45 percent of men – while both sexes carried out domestic tasks like cooking and cleaning.

“Recruiters are adapting to the tightening security environment,” said Mahdi Abdile, director of research at Finn Church Aid and co-author of the study, adding that women and girls are increasingly being targeted for recruitment.

“The intelligence community is on the lookout for young men, so it is easier for women to navigate past security barriers and penetrate communities,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Boko Haram has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in Nigeria in a seven-year insurgency to carve out an Islamist caliphate, and it still launches attacks despite having been driven out of much of the territory it held in 2014.

The report also found that six in 10 of the former militants – who are currently undergoing rehabilitation programmes – were introduced to Boko Haram by friends and relatives, while only a quarter learned about the group at mosques or Islamic schools.

“Mosques and madrasas (Islamic schools) used to be the place to get new recruits, now they are under the spotlight,” said Abdile, adding that this shift in strategy represented a challenge for anti-terror and radicalisation efforts in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, hasrestated the commitment of the federal government to rescued the Chibok girls in Boko Haram captivity.