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              Report: Boko Haram Using More Child Suicide Bombers

   by Chima Nwankwo

   Nigeria's Boko Haram militants are increasingly using children --
   nearly three-quarters are school-aged girls -- to carry out suicide
   bombings, the United Nations Children's Fund reported Tuesday.

   The report said 44 children were involved in Boko Haram suicide attacks
   in 2015 -- a tenfold increase from just four children used a year
   earlier.

   Over the past two years, one in five Boko Haram suicide bombers was a
   child and 75 percent of those children were girls, according to the
   report.

   UNICEF Nigeria spokesperson Doune Edwards said those children are
   victims, not perpetrators.

   ''"It's an appalling statistic," Edwards said. "Deceiving children and
   forcing them to carry out these horrific acts is one of the worst
   aspects of the violence in Nigeria and neighboring countries."

   Nearly all of those attacks have been in Cameroon and Nigeria.

   The terror group has sent the children, who are sometimes unaware they
   are carrying explosives, into crowded markets and mosques where they
   are rarely perceived as a threat.

   'Calculated use'

   "The calculated use of children who may have been coerced into carrying
   bombs, has created an atmosphere of fear and suspicion that has
   devastating consequences for girls who have survived captivity and
   sexual violence by Boko Haram in North East Nigeria," UNICEF said.

   Nigeria's defense spokesman General Rabe Abubakar said using children
   is just one of the group's strategies.

   "Some people will even come disguising as mad men. You see them trying
   to gain access to a crowd in order to blow up themselves," Abubakar
   said.

   "There was a situation where some people came looking for water for
   absolution. But they blew themselves up as soon as they gained access
   to the crowd," he said. "We have seen men disguise as women and women
   disguise as men, wearing turbans. Just so they can get into the mosque
   and detonate their bombs."

   ''Nigeria's defense spokesman General Rabe Abubakar said using children
   is just one of the group's strategies.

   "Some people will even come disguising as mad men. You see them trying
   to gain access to a crowd in order to blow up themselves," Abubakar
   said.

   "There was a situation where some people came looking for water for
   absolution. But they blew themselves up as soon as they gained access
   to the crowd," he said. "We have seen men disguise as women and women
   disguise as men, wearing turbans. Just so they can get into the mosque
   and detonate their bombs."

   In the past two years, Cameroon has recorded 21 suicide attacks
   involving children. Nigeria has seen 17 and Chad 2, the UNICEF report
   found.

   The report was issued two days before the two-year anniversary of the
   kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok, in northern Nigeria. More
   than 200 remain missing.

   'Robbed' of education

   Also releasing a report Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said the children
   of Nigeria have been "robbed of an education" by Boko Haram.

   HRW said that since 2009, Boko Haram has killed 611 teachers and forced
   19,000 to flee. Attacks have destroyed or shut down more than 2,000
   schools, and left nearly 1 million children in the country's northeast
   with little or no access to an education.

   "In its brutal crusade against Western-style education, Boko Haram is
   robbing an entire generation of children in northeast Nigeria of their
   education," said Mausi Segun, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch.
   "The government should urgently provide appropriate schooling for all
   children affected by the conflict."

   ''Between 2009-2015, HWR said the group has abducted more than 2,000
   civilians, many of them women and girls, including large groups of
   students.

   Women and girls freed from Boko Haram said militants used them as sex
   slaves or forced them to assist in terror operations.

   UNICEF said as more girls are being used to carry bombs, when they have
   been freed, the former captives are often met with suspicion.

   Nigerian and regional troops have ramped up pressure on Boko Haram in
   the past year. As the militants are pushed out of towns and villages,
   they have returned to a strategy of hit-and-run attacks and have
   increased the number of suicide bombings.

   The militant group has set out to impose strict Islamic law in northern
   Nigeria, ainlcuding waging war on Western-style education.

   Boko Haram's now seven-year insurgency has killed 20,000 people and
   displaced more than 2 million.

   WATCH: Related video of Boko Haram refugees

   ''
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   icide-bombers/3281074.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/report-boko-haram-using-more-child-suicide-bombers/3281074.html