More than 3,500 children have been recruited and used by non-state armed groups in North-East Nigeria since 2013 – UNICEF

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Brand Spur
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UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth meets with girls that had been kidnapped and raped by Boko Haram in Muna Garage IDP camp, in Maiduguri, Nigeria, 29 September 2017.For more than 8-years, Boko Haram related violence has devastated the lives of families and in particular children across northeast Nigeria. Nearly 1 million children have been displaced by the crisis and around 20,000 people killed, amid horrific violations of child rights. Children who have been killed, maimed and abducted, widespread sexual violence and the forcible recruitment of women and children as ‘human bombs’. Attacks on children, as well as children forced to carry out attacks, are so common that they are almost expected or accepted as part of the conflict.UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director, Justin Forsyth, visits Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, from 27 September to 29 September 2017. On the trip, Forsyth visited a UNICEF supported clinic, providing inpatient therapeutic care in Maiduguri town. The clinic is providing critical support to children affected by severe acute malnutrition, including an intensive care unit. With Maiduguri hosting so many displaced persons, there is a serious strain on health services. Forsyth met a one month old boy who had been left in a bag by the roadside. Some people thought the baby was a bomb. However, Aisha a mother of seven other children realized it was a baby and rushed the boy, who is now named Mohamed, to the clinic. She is now the surrogate mother.    Banki on the border with Cameroon, has been almost been completely destroyed and now houses thousands of displaced persons who have gathered at a camp for their own safety and to access basic services. In Banki, Forsyth went to a UNICEF supported primary health care clinic that is helping to treat children with severe acute malnutrition, saving many lives. He also sat in on a class at a temporary school set up to provide some opportunities for children to resume school and have

More than 3,500 children, most of whom were aged 13 to 17, were recruited by non-state armed groups between 2013 and 2017 and have been used in the ongoing armed conflict in northeast Nigeria – UNICEF said today ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Chibok abduction.

The UN children’s agency said that these numbers are only those that have been verified, while the true figures are likely to be higher.

In addition to these children, 432 children were killed and maimed, 180 were abducted, and 43 girls were sexually abused in north-east Nigeria in 2018.

Meanwhile, more than 100 of the abducted Chibok girls remain missing.

The anniversary of the abduction, marked on 14 April, is a grim reminder that widespread abductions of children and grave violations of children’s rights continue to take place in the north-east.

“Children should feel safe at home, in schools and on their playgrounds at all times,” said Mohamed Malick Fall, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria.

“We are calling on the parties to the conflict to fulfil their obligations under international law to end violations against children and to stop targeting civilian infrastructure, including schools. This is the only way we can begin to make lasting improvements in the lives of children in this devastated part of Nigeria.”

Since 2012, non-state armed groups in northeast Nigeria have recruited and used children as combatants and non-combatants, raped and forced girls to marry, and committed other grave violations against children. Some of the girls become pregnant in captivity and give birth without any medical care or attention.

UNICEF continues to offer its support to the Government of Nigeria in its strong efforts to protect the country’s children. UNICEF works with the Borno State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development and other partners to support children who have been rescued or escaped from captivity.

In 2017 and 2018, UNICEF and its partners provided community-based reintegration services to more than 9,800 people formerly associated with armed groups, as well as vulnerable children in communities. These services help to trace children’s families, return them to their communities, and offer psychosocial support, education, vocational training, informal apprenticeships, and opportunities to improve livelihoods.