The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has lauded the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, report delisting Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) from armed groups recruiting children as soldiers, saying it is a step towards child protection.
The UN Secretary-General credited the delisting to a significant reduction in the number of children recruited into the ranks of the CJTF and the armed group’s commitment to the implementation of an Action Plan it signed with the United Nations Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting (CTFMR) in 2017 to stop the recruitment and use of children.
Formed in 2013 with the stated aim of supporting efforts of the Nigerian military to protect communities from Boko Haram attacks, the CJTF expanded in size and influence in the region.
At the height of its operations in 2016, the group was listed in the annexes of the Secretary- General’s Annual Report for Children and Armed Conflict for the recruitment and use of children.
Since signing the 2017 Action Plan, however, the CJTF has released more than 2,000 children from its ranks, with many of the children enrolled in school and provided with psycho-social support by UNICEF.
Children have borne the brunt of the protracted conflict in northeast Nigeria. At least 3,500 young children were recruited by parties to the conflict as combatants between 2013 and 2020. Girls and boys have been used as suicide bombers, spies, labourers, cooks, messengers and wives. Girls recruited by armed groups often suffer gender-based violence, including rape.
UNICEF Chief of Maiduguri Field Office, Phuong Nguyen, in a statement on Monday in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, however lamented the recruitment of 3,500 children by parties to the conflict between 2013 and 2020, observing that girls and boys have been used as suicide bombers, spies, labourers, cooks, messengers and wives.
Nguyen warned that children recruited into armed groups often suffer from gender-based violence, including rape.
“Child soldiers are at a great risk of death or disability while undergoing armed training and initiation rites, as well as during combat,” she cautioned.
The UNICEF chief, therefore, advised the CJTF leadership to establish child protection units across its offices to prevent future recruitment of kids.
“It should consistently model its agreement to not use children for any kind of role,” she asserted.