ICC Note
Boko Haram has used nearly 5 times as many Children in Suicide bombings in 2017 as 2016. The total number is 135. This is a very large increase in the number of innocent children that are being made to sacrifice their lives for Islamic Extremism in Nigeria. Most of these children have been kidnapped over the past few years and kept by the terrorists. They hold them in order to train new fighters and build future generations. We must pray for the safety of those who are being forced into this violence by Boko Haram.
2017-12-28 Nigeria (AA.com) UNICEF on Thursday warned of an alarming surge in the number of children being used in conflict zones around the world as parties to conflicts ignore international laws designed to protect the most vulnerable.
The UN body said in a statement that in northern Nigeria and Cameroon, Boko Haram had forced at least 135 children to act as suicide bombers in 2017, almost five times the number in 2016.
”Children are being targeted and exposed to attacks and brutal violence in their homes, schools and playgrounds,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of Emergency Program.
”In conflicts around the world, children have become frontline targets, used as human shields, killed, maimed and recruited to fight. Rape, forced marriage, abduction and enslavement have become standard tactics in conflicts from Iraq, Syria and Yemen, to Nigeria, South Sudan and Myanmar,” the statement said.
”In Somalia, 1,740 cases of child recruitment were reported in the first 10 months of 2017,” it added.
According to UNICEF, violence has forced 850,000 children to flee their homes, while more than 200 health centers and 400 schools were attacked in the Kasai region in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the course of 2017.
The agency estimates that 350,000 children have suffered from severe acute malnutrition in the embattled region.…
