Soaring numbers of children used by Boko Haram terror group as suicide bombers

The terror group Boko Haram is increasingly using children to carry out suicide bombing missions, the UN has warned. In a report by its child agency, UNICEF, is said 44 children were used in suicide attacks in north-east Nigeria and neighbouring countries in 2015, compared with four the previous year. That represents youngsters being used in one in five attacks. Girls, very often drugged, are favoured by the terrorists, presumably as they raise fewer suspicions.

The proportion of attacks involving boys and girls is also on the rise, with children as young as eight. The use of children, especially girls, as suicide bombers has become one of the defining and alarming features of the conflict.

UNICEF report

The report, titled Beyond Chibok, comes two years after as many as 200 girls were kidnapped from their school in Nigeria sparking the Bring Back Our Girls campaign. None has yet been located. UNICEF’s revelations come a day after aid agency Mercy Corps noted how Boko Haram was luring young entrepreneurs and business owners in north-east Nigeria to join the Islamist militant group by providing or promising capital and loans to boost their businesse. Seeing successful business ownership as a way to escape poverty, many Nigerian youths - ranging from butchers and beauticians to tailors and traders - accepted loans for their businesses in return for joining Boko Haram, Mercy Corps said.

It is incredibly clever - either such loans breed loyalty or Boko Haram use mafia style tactics to trap and force young people to join them.

Mercy Corps peacebuilding adviser Lisa Inks

Chibok