The Amnesty International has warned in a chilling new report that Nigeria must urgently address its failure to protect and provide education to an entire generation of children in the Northeast.
The organisation allege that the past decade of bitter conflict between Nigeria’s military and Boko Haram has been an assault on childhood itself in Northeast Nigeria and urged the Nigerian authorities to urgently address how the war has targeted and traumatized thousands of children
According to the Acting Director of Crisis Response at Amnesty International, Joanne Mariner, the Nigerian authorities risk creating a lost generation unless they urgently address how the war has targeted and traumatized thousands of children.
“Boko Haram has repeatedly attacked schools and abducted large numbers of children as soldiers or ‘wives,’ among other atrocities.
“The Nigerian military’s treatment of those who escape such brutality has also been appalling. From mass, unlawful detention in inhumane conditions, to meting out beatings and torture and allowing sexual abuse by adult inmates – it defies belief that children anywhere would be so grievously harmed by the very authorities charged with their protection.”
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