According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria's Boko Haram militants recruited about 2,000 children in 2016 and used them as child soldiers.
As world leaders gathered in Paris for a conference on the protection of children in armed conflict, UNICEF Executive Director, Anthony Lake said "nearly 2,000 children were recruited by Boko Haram, in Nigeria and neighbouring countries, last year alone, and there have been nearly 1,500 cases of child recruitment in Yemen since the conflict escalated in March 2015."
The UNICEF chief said according to estimates there are tens of thousands under the age of 18 being used in conflicts worldwide today.
He said exact data on the number of children used and recruited in armed conflict is difficult to ascertain because of the unlawful nature of child recruitment.
"For instance, since 2013 an estimated 17,000 children have been recruited in South Sudan and up to 10,000 have been recruited in the Central African Republic (CAR)."
The UNICEF chief stated that although over the past 10 years, more than 65,000 children have been released from armed forces and armed groups, there are still tens of thousands of children used in armed conflicts and we cannot give up the fight to end child recruitment.
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Source: allAfrica
Photo: Surian Soosay via Flickr