Boko Haram Has Inflicted Unspeakable Horror On Children – UN

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A United Nations report has revealed how children in Nigeria’s northeast have continued to be brutalised as a result of Boko Haram’s insurgency in the region.

According to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, the report is a ‘first-of-its-kind, as it captures the impact on children of the security and humanitarian situation in the country between January 2013 and December 2016.

“With tactics including widespread recruitment, abductions, sexual violence, attacks on schools and the increasing use of children in so-called ‘suicide’attacks, Boko Haram has inflicted unspeakable horror upon the children of Nigeria’s North East and neighbouring countries.”

The statement adds that during the period reported, Boko Haram attacks on communities and with security forces resulted in the killing of 3,900 children killed leaving more than 7,300 others maimed.

The report lists suicide attacks as the second leading cause of child casualties, accounting for over one thousand deaths and 2,100 injuries during the period, with 90 children, most of them girls, used for suicide bombings in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger republic.

The UN also said it verified the recruitment and use of 1,650 children.

According to it, testimonies from children separated from Boko Haram indicate that many were abducted, but that others joined the group due to financial incentives, peer pressure, familial ties and for ideological reasons.

“In some instances, parents gave up their children to obtain security guarantees or for economic gain,” the report said.

Furthermore, it noted that children were used for a variety of roles, including for planting improvised explosive devices and burning schools or houses.

The UN also estimates that the Boko Haram insurgents targeted and destroyed 1,500 schools since 2014, killing at least 1,280 teachers and students.

Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls from the Chibok Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State in April 2014.

In the report, the UN also expressed concern about the use of children in response to the insurgency.

For instance, it said it documented the recruitment and use of 228 children, some as young as nine by the Civilian Joint Task Force.

According to it, the Children were used mainly for intelligence-related purposes, in search operations, night patrols, for crowd control and to guard posts.