Boko Haram Used Scores Children As Suicide Bombers In 2015: UNICEF
KABUL: (MEP) The so-called Islamic extremists of Boko Haram has increased using the number of child bombers from four to 44 in a year with devastating consequences in communities that now see children as threats, a UNICEF report released on Tuesday said.
One of every five suicide bombers deployed by Boko Haram in the past two years has been a child, usually a girl.
“As ‘suicide’ attacks involving children become commonplace, some communities are starting to see children as threats,” said Manuel Fontaine, West Africa director of the U.N. children’s agency. “This suspicion toward children can have destructive consequences: How can a community rebuild itself when it is casting out its own sisters, daughters and mothers?”
Boko Haram used 44 children in suicide attacks last year, compared with only four in 2014, the report found.
The youngest bomber so far was thought to be 8 years old.
Intelligence officials believe they are being used as human shields for Boko Haram leaders hiding in the Sambisa forest.
According to the report, the overall number of suicide bombings increased from 32 in 2014 to 151 last year. In 2015, 89 attacks were carried out in Nigeria, 39 in Cameroon, 16 in Chad and seven in Niger.
Cameroon has had the highest number of attacks involving children, UNICEF said.
Boko Haram has sent bombers to mosques, market places and other soft targets since a multi-national military offensive forced them out of a large swath of the country that they held until a year ago. Boko Haram wants to create an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer whose 170 million people are divided almost equally between Christians mainly in the south and Muslims in the north.
