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Boko Haram Uses Children as ‘Expendable Cannon Fodder’ – Human Rights Chief

© AP PhotoImage taken from video by Nigeria's Boko Haram terrorist network
Image taken from video by Nigeria's Boko Haram terrorist network - Sputnik International
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Boko Haram Islamist militants in northern Nigeria are using children as human bombs and raping and enslaving women and girls, the United Nations human rights chief said on Wednesday.

Chadian soldiers and journalists stand next to decaying corpses under a bridge in the recently retaken town of Damasak, Nigeria, March 20, 2015 - Sputnik International
Africa
Soldiers Find Remains of Scores of Slain Boko Haram Victims in Nigeria
Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein told a special session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Boko Haram was using children as  “expendable cannon fodder,” Reuters reported.

“The group has repeatedly used young children as human bombs, including a case of a 14-year-old girl carrying a baby on her back who detonated a bomb in a marketplace. Bodies of children around 12 years old have been found strewn across such battlefields,” Zeid said.

Women and girls have been enslaved and subjected to sexual violence, forced labor and compulsory conversion, he added, citing reports from witnesses and survivors.

Boko Haram militants have committed a series of heinous crimes during their bloody six-year campaign to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, attacking towns and villages also in neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

The Islamist insurgency has killed thousands, forced some 1.5 million to flee their homes and sharply reduced farming activity in the affected areas where many people are now facing severe food shortages.

The current dry season has intensified Boko Haram incursions into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

“What was initially a localized crisis is fast growing to very disturbing regional dimensions,” Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein warned.

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