The United Nations Children’s Fund on Friday said more than 3,500 children, aged 13 to 17, were recruited by non-state armed groups between 2013 and 2017 in the North-East.
UNICEF, in a statement on its site, said children were being used in the ongoing armed conflict in the North-East.
The world organisation released the statement ahead of the fifth anniversary of the abduction of 276 girls at the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State by the Boko Haram insurgents.
The UN agency said that the number of those recruited could be higher as the 3,500 children were the ones that had been verified.
It stated that in addition to the 3,500 children, “432 children were killed and maimed, 180 were abducted, and 43 girls were sexually abused North-East Nigeria in 2018.”
Meanwhile, more than 100 of the Chibok girls remain missing.
According to UNICEF, the anniversary of the abduction, slated for April 14, is a grim reminder that widespread abduction of children and grave violations of children’s rights continue to take place in the north-east.
The UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Malick Fall, stated, “Children should feel safe at home, in schools and on their playgrounds at all times.
“We are calling on the parties to the conflict to fulfil their obligations under international law to end violation against children and to stop targeting civilian infrastructure, including schools. This is the only way we can begin to make lasting improvements in the lives of children in this devastated part of Nigeria.”
UNICEF said that since 2012, armed groups in the North-East had been recruiting and using children as “combatants and non-combatants, raped and forced girls to marry, and committed other grave violations against children. Some of the girls become pregnant in captivity and give birth without any medical care or attention.”
It said that some of the girls became pregnant in captivity and gave birth without any medical care or attention.