According to the latest UNICEF report, Boko Haram militants in north-east Nigeria have sent out four times as many child suicide bombers so far this year, as they used the whole of 2016.
Eighty-three children have been used as bombers since the 1st of January 2017, UNICEF has reported. Of those, 55 were girls, mostly under 15 and 27 were boys. One was a baby strapped to a girl. Nineteen children were used last year, in 2016, UNICEF has said.
The Boko Haram insurgency, now in its eighth year, has claimed over 20,000 lives and forced more than two million people to flee over an eight year period.
The frequency of suicide bomb attacks in north-eastern Nigeria has increased in the past few weeks, killing at least 170 people since June.
In a statement, UNICEF said it was “extremely concerned about an appalling increase in the cruel and calculated use of children, especially girls, as ‘human bombs’ in north-east Nigeria. The use of children in this way is an atrocity”.
Boko Haram is trying to create an Islamic state in the Lake Chad region, which spans parts of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad. It gained notoriety by abducting more than 200 girls from Chibok in April 2014. Aid groups say it has kidnapped thousands more adults and children.
Children who escape are often held by authorities or ostracised by their communities and families. Nigerian aid worker Rebecca Dali, who runs an agency offering counselling for abductees, said children as young as four were among 209 escapees her organisation has helped since 2015.
“They are highly traumatised”, said Dali at the United Nations in Geneva recently, where she received an award from the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation for humanitarian work. Her team, which includes former police officers, identified some returnees as trained as suicide bombers.
“There were two girls taught by Boko Haram to be suicide bombers… The girls confirmed they were taught their life was not worth living, if they die detonating the bomb and killing a lot of people, then their lives will be profitable”, Dali said.
Some 450,000 children are also at risk of life-threatening malnutrition in 2017 by the end of the year in north-east Nigeria, UNICEF said.
Analysts say the Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau may have been paid ransom by the government for the release of 82 of Chibok girls in May, which then was used to buy weapons and recruit fighters. The government did not disclose details of the negotiations.
