By Emmanuel Nduka
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has disclosed that up to 8,000 children have been recruited in the terrorism war against Nigeria by Boko Haram since 2009.
The UN agency disclosed this while calling for a step-up of effort to protect child victims and witnesses in terrorism-related proceedings in Nigeria.
It said reports had shown that some boys and girls were increasingly being used as human shields and to detonate bombs.
“According to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) report from the Handbook of children recruited and exploited by terrorist and violent extremist groups, since 2009, about 8,000 children have been recruited and used by Boko Haram in Nigeria.
“Some boys have been forced to attack their own families to demonstrate loyalty to Boko Haram, while girls have been forced to marry, clean, cook and carry equipment and weapons,” UNODC said in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement added that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) received consistent reports that some boys and girls were increasingly being used as human shields and to detonate bombs, citing that in May 2015, for example, a girl about 12 years old, was used to detonate a bomb at a bus station in Damaturu, Yobe State, killing seven people. Similar incidents were reported in Cameroon and Niger Republic.
It added that the recently released propaganda video by ISWAP, showing children being taught military skills to train them for fighting and the latest attack on the Chibok community in Borno State by ISWAP, are a reminder of the importance to step up the efforts aimed to protect children from terrorist groups.
UNODC, however, revealed that it is working closely with national counterparts to provide support aimed at preventing and responding to violence against children by terrorist and violent extremist groups, under a new European funded project called “STRIVE Juvenile.”
Project Manager of STRIVE Juvenile, Bianca Kopp, said UNODC acknowledged during the opening of a recent capacity building workshop that, “We have all sadly become familiar – unfortunately – with the phenomenon of child recruitment and exploitation by terrorist groups.
“Indeed, the kidnapping of the Chibok girls was probably the first event that brought global attention to the brutality of these groups towards children and, even more crucially, it showed how children play a key role in their criminal tactics.
“Thousands of children have since then been recruited, exploited as servants, cooks, spies, in hostilities, and even used to carry out suicide attacks. When these children exit the groups, they have experienced prolonged violence, their bonds to the communities have been severed, and their personal development has been warped. As thousands of people, including children, are currently leaving the ranks of the groups to rejoin society, the urgency of appropriate responses increases,” she said.
The statement also quoted Doctor Ifeakandu, from the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Nigeria, to have said: “Terrorism remains one of the most potent challenges to Nigeria,” adding that, “Children are disproportionately affected by it and we need to find responses in line with their best interests.”
Representative of the European Union, Jerome Rivière, stressed that the STRIVE Juvenile project “recognises the importance of children’s role as agents of peace and in their potential to transform societal dynamics. When children and families do not feel safe, counterterrorism cannot work.”
