WARTIME KILLING OF CHILDREN BY NIGERIAN ARMY WAS SYSTEMATIC, INTENTIONAL: REPORT

Wed 14 December 2022:

The Nigerian army allegedly massacred children in its ongoing war efforts against the Islamic insurgents in the country’s northeast, a Reuters report claimed.

The report cites more than 40 sources, including soldiers and civilians who claim to have witnessed the military killing children or to have seen corpses of children in the aftermath of army operations.

Reportedly, parents of the said children or other civilian witnesses were also slaughtered.

The children were “deleted” on army commander orders, which were based on the belief that these children were collaborating with militants in Boko Haram or its Islamic State offshoot or have “tainted” blood of insurgent fathers that would one day mould them into terrorists.

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Some soldiers also said that it was a kill-or-be-killed situation, as children were used by insurgents as fighters, suicide bombers and informants.

“This is something that everyone knows. It’s not just our commanders, most other people say the same, and they heard it from the mouths of our soldiers, saying that if we let them grow up, if they’re born and they grow up, it will be with that ideology, Boko Haram’s ideology. Because their parents are Boko Haram, it’s too late and the blood has already reacted in their bodies, they will grow up that way. That’s why whoever asks them, they will say that’s why they kill,” said one soldier while talking to the news agency.

Witness reports suggest that intentional killings of children “have occurred with a blurring frequency across the region” ever since the war began 13 years back.

While the report fails to coin a set number, Reuters estimates that around 60 children were killed in just six incidents, with the most recent one in February 2021. Most of them were shot in the back as they were fleeing.

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Nigerian military leaders have refuted the claims and said that the army has never targeted children. They allege that the report is part of foreign efforts to undermine the nation and its fight against insurgents.

“Not in Nigeria, not in Nigeria. We’re cultural. We’re communal here. So everybody respects life. We respect families. We respect women and children. We respect every living soul,” said Major General Christopher Musa, who heads the counterinsurgency campaign in the northeast.

The intentional, systematic killing of civilians during an armed conflict as per international human rights law is a war crime and a crime against humanity. Another recent Reuters report claims that the army also undertook the forced abortion of around 10,000 women since 2009.

The United States has reacted to the report with shock and said it was “deeply troubled”.

In an email, to Reuters a State Department spokesperson said that the country was “pursuing further information”.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has called on the Nigerian government to immediately investigate the claims and said “The killing of children on the presumption that they were, or would become, terrorists, is a war crime which violates international laws.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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