More children used in Boko Haram bomb attacks-UNICEF

The United Nations International Children’s (UNICEF) has lamented the increasing rate of the number of children used in ‘suicide’ attacks in the Lake Chad conflict. In the first three months of 2017 alone, up to 27 children have been used in suicide attacks, compared with nine over the same period last year, the Fund said. […]

The United Nations International Children’s (UNICEF) has lamented the increasing rate of the number of children used in ‘suicide’ attacks in the Lake Chad conflict.

In the first three months of 2017 alone, up to 27 children have been used in suicide attacks, compared with nine over the same period last year, the Fund said.

In a report released to mark the 3rd anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok girls, UNICEF’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Marie-Pierre Poirier stated yesterday that, in the first three months of this year, the number of children used in bomb attacks is nearly the same as the whole of last year.

"The increase reflects an alarming tactic by the insurgents, according to the report Silent Shame: Bringing out the voices of children caught in the Lake Chad crisis. So far, 117 children have been used to carry out bomb attacks in public places across Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon since 2014: four in 2014, 56 in 2015, 30 in 2016 and 27 only in the first three months of 2017. Girls have been used in the vast majority of these attacks."

Released three years after the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, the report provides troubling accounts by children who were held in captivity at the hands of Boko Haram, and shows how these children are met with deep suspicion when they return to their communities.

Poirier stated that as a consequence, girls, boys and even infants have been viewed with increasing fear at markets and checkpoints, where they are thought to carry explosives adding that these children are victims, not perpetrators. "Forcing or deceiving them into committing such horrific acts is reprehensible."

 

The report also highlights the challenges that local authorities face with children who have been intercepted at checkpoints and taken into administrative custody for questioning and screening, raising concerns about the prolonged periods of custody.

UNICEF however called on parties to the conflict to commit to protect children in the region by ending grave violations against children by Boko Haram including the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict as so-called ‘suicide bombers’, move children from a military to civilian environment as quickly as possible and also provide care and protection for separated and unaccompanied children.