UNICEF warns sharp increase in number of children used in suicide attacks in Africa

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Tuesday that the number of children involved in suicide attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger has risen sharply over the past year, from four in 2014 to 44 in 2015.

"More than 75 percent of the children involved in the attacks are girls," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the secretary-general, citing a report released by UNICEF Tuesday.

UNICEF's Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Manuel Fontaine, stressed that these children are victims, not perpetrators, and that deceiving children and forcing them to carry out deadly acts has been one of the most horrific aspects of the violence in Nigeria and in neighbouring countries.

The calculated use of children 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, said UNICEF.

The report, entitled Beyond Chibok, is published two years after the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok, in Borno State, Nigeria, and shows alarming trends in four countries affected by Boko Haram over the past two years.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that some 2.5 million people in the conflict-affected parts of Nigeria are facing a food security crisis.

The worst affected areas are rural Borno and Yobe states, and Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, according to OCHA.

At the same time, Haq pointed out international humanitarian agencies do not have access to many of these communities because of insecurity.

"Tens of thousands of displaced people in these areas are in camps run by the Nigerian military, where food deliveries from the national and state emergency management agencies are sporadic," he said. Endit