Boko Haram: 83 Children used as human bombs in 2017- UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has said 83 children have so far been used as human bombs in the North Eastern part of the country in 2017.

UNICEF’s Chief of Communication, Doune Porter, who made this known in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, revealed that 55 girls under the age of 15, 27 boys and a baby were used as human bombs within the last seven months to destroy lives and properties within the region

Raising an alarm over the increased use of children, especially female bombers, she lamented that this figure was four times higher than it was in previous years and in the whole of last year (2016), in particular.

According to her, the use of children in insurgency attacks has created suspicion and fear of children who have been released, rescued or managed to have escaped from Boko Haram insurgents, giving rise to rejection and difficulty in reintegrating into the community.

“UNICEF is extremely concerned about an appalling increase in the cruel and calculated use of children, especially girls, as ‘human bombs’ in northeast Nigeria. Children have been used repeatedly in

“Since 1 January 2017, 83 children have been used as ‘human bombs’; 55 were girls, most often under 15 years old; 27 were boys, and one was a baby strapped to a girl. The sex of the baby used in the explosion was impossible to determine.

“The use of children in this way is an atrocity. Children used as ‘human bombs’ are, above all, victims, not perpetrators.

“The armed group commonly known as Boko Haram has sometimes, but not always, claimed responsibility for these attacks, which target the civilian population,” she said.

Porter further disclosed that, due to the massive displacement and malnutrition crisis poised by insurgent attacks on the North Eastern part of the country, about 450,000 children are presently at risk of severe malnutrition in 2017.

“All of this is taking place in the context of a massive displacement and malnutrition crisis – a combination that is also deadly for children.  There are 1.7 million people displaced by the insurgency in the northeast, 85 per cent of them in Borno State, where most of these attacks take place.

“Northeast Nigeria is one of four countries and regions facing the spectre of famine, with up to 450,000 children at risk of severe acute malnutrition this year,” she added.

Porter noted that besides its efforts in reconciliation activities to promote tolerance, acceptance and reintegration of children who have been held by boko haram, UNICEF was also committed to providing psychosocial, social and economic reintegration support to the children and their families.