UN raises alarm over increasing use of children as human bombs

THE United Nations voiced alarm yesterday at Boko Haram jihadists’ surging use of children, mainly girls, as human bombs in northeast Nigeria, describing the practice as an atrocity.

The Islamists have for several years been using children to attack crowded markets, mosques and camps for internally displaced people in northeast Nigeria and the broader Lake Chad region.

But the UN children’s agency said yesterday that there had been an appalling increase in the cruel and calculated use of children, especially girls, as so-called human bombs.

Since the beginning of the year, 83 children had been used to carry out bomb attacks in northeast Nigeria -- four times as many attacks as in all of last year, Unicef said.

Fifty-five of the children used as bombers were girls, mostly under the age of 15, while 27 were boys and one was a baby strapped to a girl, UN numbers show.

Since 2014, a total of 125 children have been used as bombers in northeast Nigeria, according to Unicef.

Boko Haram had sometimes, but not always, claimed responsibility for the attacks, it said.

The agency stressed that the children used as human bombs “are, above all, victims, not perpetrators”.

It pointed out that the use of children in such attacks had also created suspicion and fear of children who had been released, rescued or had escaped from Boko Haram.

“As a result, many children who have managed to get away from captivity face rejection when they try to reintegrate into their communities, compounding their suffering,” it said.

Children in northeast Nigeria are also struggling to survive a displacement and malnutrition crisis, triggered by the insurgency. – AFP