ABUJA (Reuters) - A regional militia allied with Nigerian government forces freed on Friday almost 900 children it had used in the war against Islamist Boko Haram insurgents, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said.
The
move brought the total number of children freed to more than 1,700, a UNICEF
statement said. Non-state armed groups embroiled in the decade-long conflict
against Boko Haram recruited more than 3,500 children between 2013 and 2017 in
Nigeria’s northeast, according to UNICEF.
“(This)
is a step in the right direction for the protection of children’s rights and
must be recognized and encouraged,” UNICEF Nigeria chief Mohamed Fall said in
the statement, referring to Friday’s release by the militia group, which works
closely with the military to fight Boko Haram.
“Children
of northeast Nigeria have borne the brunt of this conflict. They have been used
by armed groups in combatant and non-combatant roles and witnessed death,
killing and violence.”
The
militia group had committed in September 2017 to ending their use of children
in the conflict. Last October, 833 were released by the group.
It
is not clear how many children in total have been drawn into Nigerian armed
groups, including Boko Haram, or how they have been recruited. Videos seen by
Reuters show child soldiers rescued from Boko Haram demonstrating to Nigerian
troops how they were trained to fight and shoot rifles.
Nigeria’s
war against two jihadist groups, Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa
Province, has left more than 30,000 people dead and displaced millions more,
with the Islamist insurgencies showing little sign of ending.
Residents
of northeast Nigeria formed the militia, called the Civilian Joint Task Force,
to help take on Boko Haram, which arose from the same communities. Some credit
the militia with making early headway against Boko Haram in urban areas, using
its local knowledge to identify people affiliated with the militants, although
also drawing allegations that it sometimes used its power to settle scores in
localized feuds.
UNICEF’s
work in northeast Nigeria has at time angered authorities. In December, the
military briefly suspended the agency’s work amid allegations that UNICEF staff
spied on behalf of militants in the restive region.
The
northeast of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and biggest energy
producer, is rife with abuses on both sides of the conflict - from the
recruitment of children to extrajudicial killings and rapes, according to human
rights groups.
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