Shocking increase in use of child suicide bombers by Boko Haram
Children in conflicts
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Smoke rises at scene of female suicide bombing in Gombe
Girls and women are increasingly being used as suicide bombers by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria, has warned.
The United Nations children鶹APPs agency said there had been more attacks already in 2015 than in the whole of last year and that the rise could mean children being perceived as potential threats.
Jean Gough, UNICEF Representative in the country, said: 鶹APPChildren are not instigating these suicide attacks 鶹APP they are used intentionally by adults in the most horrific way. They are first and foremost victims, not perpetrators.鶹APP
Girls and women have been used to detonate bombs or explosive belts at crowded locations, such as market places and bus stations. They include kidnapped children but also those separated from families or displaced from their homes.
A young girl , killing seven people and injuring 31. Witnesses said the girl, aged about 12, had the explosives hidden under her clothes at Damaturu in Yobe state.
Since July 2014, nine suicide incidents involving children believed by witnesses to be aged between about seven and 17 鶹APP all of them girls 鶹APP have been reported.
School for displaced people in Yola Picture: UNICEF/Esiebo
So far in 2015 there have been 27 suicide attacks recorded in Nigeria 鶹APP one more than in all of 2014.In at least three-quarters of these incidents, women and children were reportedly used to carry out the attacks.
Nigeria has nine million children out of school. About 743,000 children have been uprooted from their homes by the growing violence perpetrated by Boko Haram in the northeast of the country and UNICEF believes as many as 10,000 of them are unaccompanied or were separated from their families when they fled the violence.
Ms Gough added:鶹APPWithout the protection of their families, these children are at greater risk of exploitation by adults and this can lead to involvement in criminal or armed group activities.鶹APP
Laurent Dutordoir, a UNICEF child protection specialist in the Nigerian capital Abuja, said the use of child suicide bombers could mean many children may be seen as a threat.
He said this could prevent the rehabilitation and reintegration of children who had been forced into being involved with armed groups.
Mr Dutordoir added:鶹APPUNICEF staff are travelling into the field on a weekly basis.鶹APP He said it was 鶹APPworking with local partners on the ground to reach those children, both in internally-displaced persons camps and in informal settings鶹APP.
A World at School and Gordon Brown, the , have been involved in the setting up of safe schools in Nigeria in response to the actions of Boko Haram.
In March, thatalmost 30,000 children displaced by Boko Haram are in double-shift schools and additional children in at-risk areas are benefiting from school relocation and increased security measures.
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