What's This?
A demonstration calling on the government to rescue the kidnapped girls of the government secondary school in Chibok, in Abuja, Nigeria, on May 28, 2014.
Image: Sunday Alamba/Associated Press
By Megan Specia2015-04-13 17:25:05 UTC
Nearly one year has passed since Boko Haram militants stormed a boarding school in northern Nigeria and abducted 276 schoolgirls.
The mass kidnapping on April 14, 2014, from the rural town of Chibok ignited outrage, sparking calls from the international community — including Michelle Obama — to "Bring Back Our Girls."
Some, thankfully, made it home, escaping their captors and walking days through the desert to freedom.
But the 200 schoolgirls who remain missing represent just a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of children who are threatened by the extremists, according to a staggering UNICEF report that documents the scale of violence.
An estimated 800,000 children have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict in northeast Nigeria between Boko Haram, military forces and civilian militias, according to the report, which was released on Monday.
The children make up the majority of more than 1.5 million people who have fled their homes due to the violence.
The devastating report shows that the number of children displaced in Nigeria, many of whom have been forced to cross the border into neighboring Chad, Niger or Cameroon, has more than doubled in the past year. The country just held a peaceful election that will see power transition from President Goodluck Jonathan to Muhammadu Buhari, who has vowed to crush the group, but the affect on children remains staggering.
“The abduction of more than 200 girls in Chibok is only one of endless tragedies being replicated on an epic scale across Nigeria and the region,” says Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF regional director for West and Central Africa. “Scores of girls and boys have gone missing in Nigeria — abducted, recruited by armed groups, attacked, used as weapons, or forced to flee violence. They have the right to get their childhoods back."
A 15-year-old Nigerian boy named Peter, who fled to a Chadian refugee camp after attacks in northern Nigeria, spoke to UNICEF about being separated from his family when he fled across the border into Chad. Peter is living in a temporary camp in Dar es Salaam. His family, meanwhile, is living in Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria.
"I have five brothers and one sister in Nigeria. I miss them," said Peter in a video releaed by UNICEF. "By the grace of God I will go back and see them."
Aid organizations and NGOs face unique challenges in providing aid for those displaced by Boko Haram says Laurent Duvillier, UNICEF communications specialist for West and Central Africa, who is based in Chad. In addition to a shortage in available resources, the groups are struggling to help families who are constantly on the run from violence.
"The families, most of them women and children, are moved from one village to another fleeing attack after attack," Duvillier told Mashable. "They are literally being hunted by Boko Haram.”
Evelyn sits on a bunk bed while holding her 1-year-old daughter, Rose, in a camp for internally displaced people, in Yola, Nigeria.
Violent spillover from the conflict is not the only adversity these children face. Their displacement means they have limited access to humanitarian support, including healthcare, education and basic social services.
The number of elementary school-aged children of not attending school in Nigeria has increased from 8 million in 2007 to 10.5 million. This puts the rate at the highest in the world, and nearly 60 per cent of these children are in the north of the country, where Boko Haram militants have their strongest hold, according to UNICEF.
UNICEF is hoping by using the #BringBackOurChildhood hashtag, it can bring new attention to the wider plight of children in the country.
"It was one year ago and it's still tragedy. Most of them remain captive and this is unacceptable," said Duvillier. "But since then, over the past 12 months many other children, boys and girls, have been abducted, many others have been recruited by Boko Haram and are being used by Boko Haram as tactics of war."
Duvillier says the change in leadership provides an opportunity for providing children with the necessary resources both in Nigeria and in neighboring countries.
"Its an opportunity for the new president to give children, who are often the first affected by crisis," Duvillier said. "It's an opportunity to put them back a the center of the political agenda. You can really see that the childhood of those children has been abducted, has been lost.”
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Topics:
Boko Haram,
bring back our girls,
nigeria,
World