Unicef says move is a ‘step in right direction’ for protection of children’s rights

Nearly 900 children, including some as young as 13, have been freed by a pro-government militia fighting against Islamist Boko Haram insurgents, the UN children’s agency has said.

More than 1,700 children have now been released by Civilian Joint Task Force, a local militia thatworks closely with the military to fight Boko Haram and signed a commitment to end the recruitment and use of children in 2017.

Non-state armed groups embroiled in the decade-long conflict against Boko Haram recruited more than 3,500 children between 2013 and 2017 in Nigeria’s north-east, according to Unicef.

“[This] is a step in the right direction for the protection of children’s rights and must be recognised and encouraged,” said Unicef’s Nigeria chief, Mohamed Fall, following the children’s release on Friday.

“Children of north-east Nigeria have borne the brunt of this conflict. They have been used by armed groups in combatant and non-combatant roles and witnessed death, killing and violence.”

The UN’s annual report on children and armed conflict, released last year, found that 1,092 children, the majority of them boys (738), were recruited and used by armed groups in 2017. It described Boko Haram, which has been condemned for its use of children as suicide bombers, as the main perpetrator.

The 894 children, released at a ceremony in the north-eastern town of Maiduguri, were aged between 13 and 19. They were were recruited in 2017.

Children who had been separated from their families will be reunited from Saturday, said Kusali Nellie Kubwalo of Unicef Nigeria, adding that they will also be offered support to get education and training: “There’s an assessment to see what support can be given … whether they want to go back to school, so we can link them to the right school.”

Last October, 833 children were released by the Civilian Joint Task Force, whose commitment to end the recruitment of children was heralded as a landmark moment when the agreement was signed in September 2017, after a year of negotiations with the UN.

UK could boost military support to help Nigeria defeat Boko Haram Read more

Nigeria’s war against two jihadist groups, Boko Haram and Islamic State west Africa province, which has left more than 30,000 people dead and displaced millions more, shows no signs of being resolved.

Profile Who are Boko Haram? Show Hide Commonly known as Boko Haram, the Islamic State in West Africa is a terrorist organisation based in Northeast Nigeria. Formed in 2002 as Jamā'atu Ahli is-Sunnah lid-Da'wati wal-Jihād meaning “Group of the people of Sunnah for Dawa and Jihad”, the term Boko Haram is loosely translated as ‘Western education is forbidden’ or ‘Western influence is a sin’. Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the Nigerian government in 2009. Their activities have included suicide bombings and the kidnapping of female students from a college in Chibok in 2014. A mass prison break-out in 2010 swelled their ranks. Their insurgency has also spread into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

In 2015 a coalition of troops from those three countries, alongside Nigerian forces, mounted a concerted effort to push back against Boko Haram. For their part, since 2015, Boko Haram has aligned itself with Islamic State. The UN estimates that at least 20,000 people have been killed in the conflict to date, but that is widely held to be far below the true number. At the peak of its strength it held territory equal to the size of Belgium Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and his generals have repeatedly declared that they have “beaten”, “defeated”, “technically defeated”, “routed” and “broken the heart and soul” of Boko Haram. Studies suggest casualties have dropped drastically in recent years. But the suicide bombings, child abductions and displacement of the local population continues. Estimates of the group’s strength vary between 4,000 and 20,000 fighters, and the number of people who have fled Boko Haram’s territory in the Lake Chad Basin is thought to be in the order of 2.4 million.

The Civilian Joint Task Force is formed largely from vigilante groups in response to the Boko Haram insurgency. Some credit the group with protecting communities in areas poorly guarded by the military, but it has also been accused of rape and human rights abuses by Human Rights Watch and other rights organisations.

Unicef’s work in north-east Nigeria has at times angered authorities. In December, the military briefly suspended the agency’s work amid allegations that Unicef staff spied on behalf of militants in the restive region.

The north-east of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and biggest energy producer, is rife with abuses on both sides of the conflict – from the recruitment of children to extrajudicial killings and rapes, according to human rights groups.