ICC Note: Children are victims of Boko Haram, even if they aren’t directly killed, kidnapped or injured by the militant Islamists. As a result of a calamitous and deadly six-year insurgency in the Lake Chad and northern Nigeria region, Boko Haram has murdered upwards of 15,000 people, most of whom are Christians, has displaced more than two million, and has destroyed more than 2,000 schools, leaving more than a million children without education. The ones who survive are often forced into displacement camp scenarios wheres scores of children pack into semi-permanent structures where insufficient numbers of volunteer teachers try to teach kids of all ages bunched under the same curriculum. Lack of education leaves an entire generation of kids vulnerable to lack of opportunity, abuse, and recruitment by Boko Haram.
12/24/15 Nigeria (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Violence in northeast Nigeria and neighboring countries targeted by Boko Haram has forced more than one million children out of school, leaving them prey to abuse, abduction and recruitment by armed groups, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
More than 2,000 schools in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger remain closed due to the conflict and hundreds have been looted, damaged or destroyed, said the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF.
While hundreds of schools in northeast Nigeria have reopened in recent months, insecurity and fear of violence are preventing many teachers from resuming classes and discouraging parents from sending their children back to school, according to UNICEF.
Boko Haram is mostly based in northeast Nigeria but the militant group has this year intensified its campaign, setting up camps and launching attacks in neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger in its drive to carve out an Islamist caliphate.
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