UNICEF report: Boko Haram forcing more children to become 'suicide' bombers

A grim UNICEF report released Tuesday reveals that in 2015, 44 children, mostly girls, were forced by extremist group Boko Haram to detonate bombs in busy areas across Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad.

The report is called "Beyond Chibok," referring to the April 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria, by Boko Haram militants. The children, some as young as eight, are forced to detonate suicide bombs in markets, mosques, and displaced persons camps, a trend that UNICEF calls "one of the defining and alarming features of the conflict." Because women and girls in the area wear long, loose dresses, it's easier for them to wear explosives under their garments, and between January 2014 and February 2016, 21 attacks involving one or more children took place in Cameroon, 17 in Nigeria, and two in Chad.

UNICEF's spokeswoman in Nigeria, Doube Porter, told the Los Angeles Times the bombings can't be classified as suicide attacks, since many of the children were not given a choice, or were too young to fully comprehend the consequences of their actions. Life doesn't get any easier for most abducted girls after they are freed — they face being rejected or even killed because "they're seen as being tainted by Boko Haram," Porter said. One girl, 17, said she was kidnapped and forced to marry a Boko Haram fighter. She gave birth to a son while in captivity, and now in a displaced persons camp, faces abuse by people who call her a "Boko Haram wife." "I felt as if I was neglected," she said. "I did not have anybody to help or support me. When I feel sadness in my heart, sometimes I cry and wipe my tears away."

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