Nigeria Releases 86 More Children And Youth From Military Prison

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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

Several months ago, we travelled to northeast Nigeria to interview children who had been imprisoned on suspicion of being members of the extremist armed group Boko Haram. Their stories horrified us. We met a boy who was detained when he was only five years old. Another whose village had been attacked by Boko Haram told us he was detained for two years simply for selling yams to Boko Haram members in an effort to make money for his family. Many said they had actually been arrested while fleeing Boko Haram fighters.

Since 2013, Nigerian authorities have detained thousands of children. The vast majority are never charged with a crime or brought before a judge. They are held for months or even years, cut off from the outside world and their families. Children we interviewed described brutal beatings, deadly heat, frequent hunger, and being packed in squalid cells with hundreds of other detainees.

When we released our report in September, the Nigerian government issued a statement denouncing our findings and denying that they detain children. But within just 24 hours, the military initiated the release of 25 children from Giwa barracks, where most of the children we interviewed were held. The youngest was just 7.

Yesterday the military released an additional 86 children and youth from the military prison. This is great news. With the help of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Nigerian Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, they will soon be reunited with their families.

Releasing children from military detention is an important step. But the Nigerian military still denies the United Nations access to its military prisons. Without independent monitoring, we have no way of knowing how many children may still be imprisoned.

The Nigerian government should give the UN access to its military detention facilities, sign a formal handover protocol to ensure that children apprehended by the military are quickly transferred to appropriate child protection authorities, and end military detention of children once and for all.