The United Nations Children Education Fund(UNICEF),says that at least 950 students in Nigeria have been abducted from their schools by armed men since December.
It said over the past six weeks alone, nearly 500 children were abducted in four separate incidents across the central and northwest parts of the country.
It added:”Many of these children have not yet been returned. It is hard to fathom the pain and fear that their families and loved ones are suffering in their absence”
UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore,who disclosed these,also lamented that 150 children were reportedly abducted from a school in Kaduna State , Nigeria on July 5th, marking the latest incidence in an alarming trend of attacks against children and abductions, including students, in parts of West and Central Africa.
In a statement by UNICEF’s Communication Specialist, Samuel Kaalu,the group expressed concern over the intensification of violent actions by non-state armed groups and conflict parties in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Niger, and Nigeria .
It added:“In the DRC, in the first quarter of 2021 alone, more than 3,400 violations against children such as recruitment to armed groups, abduction and killing were verified, representing 64 per cent of the total number of violations verified for the entire year of 2020.
“It is not enough to condemn these crimes, not when millions of children face a worsening protection crisis. Children living in these areas need concerted action to ensure that they can safely live, go to school or fetch water without fear of being attacked or taken from their families.
“This starts with non-state armed groups and all parties to conflict who are committing violations of children’s rights – they have a moral and legal obligation to immediately cease attacks against civilians, and to respect and protect civilians and civilian objects during any military operations. They should also not impede but facilitate the efforts of UNICEF and other humanitarian actors on the ground working to reach vulnerable children.
“The international community also has an important role to play. We need our donors to increase their contributions so that we can expand our work to reduce children’s vulnerabilities and increase their resilience to keep them safe from harm. These efforts include creating safe temporary learning environments for children in areas where schools have been closed because of insecurity, providing psychosocial support to children affected by violence, and supporting education on mine risk awareness.
“Every effort must be made to reverse the spiraling protection crisis for children as the region is on the brink of catastrophe”, the statement further reads.
