Nigerian army rescues 25 child soldiers from Boko Haram

Nigerian army on Thursday handed over 25 child
soldiers recruited by the terror group Boko Haram
to the government and an agency of the United
Nations for rehabilitation.

The child soldiers, aged between eight and 16
years, were rescued separately during recent
operations by troops in the northeast region of the
country, said Olusegun Adeniyi, the theater
commander of the army in Nigeria’s northeast
region.

Adeniyi, while handing over the child soldiers to the
state government of Borno and the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) at a ceremony in the
state capital, Maiduguri, noted the exercise was in
conformity with the global best practice.

“This is in line with the ongoing drive of the
Nigerian army to abide by and sustain the protocol
of the protection of the rights of the child
associated with armed conflicts,”

Adeniyi said.

In this way, he said, the Nigerian army had
demonstrated the commitment to the fight against
Boko Haram with a specific focus on the protection
of vulnerable groups who were mostly victims and
forcefully conscripted and recruited by the armed
group.

The exercise is also part of a holistic approach
toward saving children who were forcefully recruited
as child soldiers without any moral justification,
Adeniyi said.

Most of the children, including 23 boys and two
girls, were, according to the military official,
severely abused and exposed to sexual violence.

He said their rehabilitation and reintegration into
civil life was an integral part of the military’s
operations with other stakeholders.

This development brings to 44 the number of
children released this year, said Pernille Ironside,
the UNICEF Nigeria acting representative.

Ironside said the organization had rehabilitated a
total of 2,499 people including 1,627 children since
2016.
“These are children taken away from their families
and communities, deprived of their childhood,
education, healthcare, and of the chance to grow up
in a safe and enabling environment,”

she said.

“UNICEF will continue working to ensure that all
conflict-affected children are reunited with their
families, have hope of fulfilling their dreams and
their human rights,

” she added.