250,000 Children in Parts of Nigeria's Borno State, Suffering from Severe Malnutrition

UN condemns 'barbaric' Boko Haram violence in Nigeria

From BBC Africa

This file photo taken on May 25, 2015 shows Nigerian soldiers patrolling on a road between Diffa and Bosso. Image copyright AFP

UN officials have warned that the Nigerian army, and other regional forces, are underfunded

The United Nations has accused the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram of "almost unimaginable" violence and brutality in Nigeria.

Stephen O'Brien, the UN humanitarian coordinator, said the militant group's actions had forced thousands to flee and left unprecedented numbers in need.

The UN estimates that more than nine million people in the region need humanitarian assistance.


A girl and her mother are rescued from Boko Haram in Sambisa forest by Nigerian Military seen with some food as they arrive at a camp for internally displaced people in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State.

Mr O'Brien told the UN Security Council that Nigeria was bearing "the brunt of the crisis", with Nigerians accounting for seven of the nine million people in need.

He said Boko Haram's "heinous, barbaric and unconscionable" violence had led to serious human rights violations in the country.

"From January to June 2016, more than 50 children have been coerced to carry out suicide bombings across the four countries," he said.


File photo shows a doctor attending to a malnourished child at a refugee camp in Yola, Nigeria

UN political chief Jeffrey Feltman said Boko Haram remained a threat to stability in the region, despite the group being pushed back from some areas.

Both men warned the council that the fight against the group was suffering from a lack of funding.

This is a big problem in Nigeria because of the rampant corruption in the government and military. Other countries are reluctant to help, I suspect, because most of the money is liable to disappear before it makes any difference on the ground.

The militant group continues to target countries in the region, including Nigeria and Cameroon, with bomb and suicide attacks.

The UN's children's agency Unicef warned last week that almost 250,000 children in parts of Nigeria's Borno state, formerly controlled by Boko Haram, were suffering from severe malnutrition.

Boko Haram at a glance:


Boko Haram fighters still appear well armed in recent propaganda videos

Founded in 2002, initially focused on opposing Western-style education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language

Launched military operations in 2009

Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria, and hundreds abducted, including at least 200 schoolgirls

Joined so-called Islamic State, now calls itself IS's "West African province"

Seized large area in north-east, where it declared caliphate

Regional force has now retaken most territory

Boko Haram Takes Their Insanity to Niger, Chad and Cameroon

Female suicide bombers kill 5 in north Cameroon

No group claims responsibility, but attacks are in line with others launched by Boko Haram

The Associated Press

Two dozen people were killed in Kano, northern Nigeria, in February when a pair of teenaged suicide bombers suspected to from Boko Haram set off blasts at two bus stations. Saturday's bombings in neighbouring Cameroon were perpetrated by at least one teen, and are also believed to have been the work of Boko Haram. (EPA)

Two female suspected Boko Haram militants detonated a pair of suicide bombs in a village in northern Cameroon on Saturday, killing at least five people, security sources and an official said.

Col. Jacob Kodji said a teenager set off explosives in a local shop, killing two people, and the other attacker targeted a family.

One wonders what kind of evil Boko Haram had to inflict on these girls to force them to murder/suicide? 

The attacks occurred in the town of Dabanga near Cameroon's northern border with Nigeria. Kodji said the suicide bombers were Nigerians who came to Cameroon as refugees.

"The provisional toll is seven dead, including the two suicide bombers, as well as two soldiers injured," a senior government source told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

Kodji said 12 others were injured and are receiving treatment at a military camp in Mora.

Dabanga, Cameroon, map

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they are in line with others launched by Nigeria's Boko Haram extremists.

This year Boko Haram has expanded attacks into Cameroon, Chad and Niger — all countries contributing troops to a regional force intended to wipe out the extremists.

Centred in northeast Nigeria, Boko Haram is a radical Sunni Muslim group that wants to create an Islamic caliphate and impose its version of strict Sharia law and is hostile to those following the Shiite branch of the religion.

On Friday, a suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber detonated himself in the middle of a procession of hundreds of Shiite Muslims in Nigeria's second-largest city, killing 21 people and injuring dozens.

Boko Haram's Child Victims Learn to Smile Again at Niger Camp

By Boureima Hama
AFP 

Children at a refugee camp in southeast Niger

ASSAGA (Niger) (AFP) - In a shed at the heart of the Assaga refugee camp in southeast Niger, around 50 children sing and dance, masking the deep emotional trauma inflicted on them by Boko Haram.

Nearby, little girls who fled the brutal Islamists in neighbouring Nigeria huddle around jigsaw puzzles, while barefoot young boys in ragged clothes or shirtless play football and table tennis.

The camp has no school, but staff from UN agencies and specialised charities do their best to help the youngsters, who make up the majority of the around 6,000 refugees here who were routed from their villages by Boko Haram.

Special help is being provided by psychologists to 1,011 of the children, seen as among the most vulnerable victims of the violence, to adapt to a new life, often in the wake of terrible events.

"Many children were witnesses or the direct victims of atrocities by Boko Haram," says Adama Cossimbo, head of the psychological help centre financed by the Italian non-governmental organisation COOPI.

"Boko Haram forced some children to watch their mothers or sisters being raped," a UN relief worker says. "Others saw their father or their brother having his throat slit."

Children stand next to a UNICEF tent at a refugee camp

The trauma was so severe for some that when they first arrived in Assaga, they would not eat or speak, he adds.

- 'On the right path' -

According to COOPI, many of the children show signs of mental illness.

"We're developing games and activities to strengthen their resilience after the trauma they've endured," says Cossimbo, who works with a psychologist and teachers.

Along with sports and games, relief workers give puzzles and memory quizzes to the children cared for at the centre.

Psychologists say many children were witnesses or the direct victims of
atrocities by Boko Haram (AFP)

Two months on, Cossimbo is optimistic. "They sing and seem to be their old cheerful selves... We're on the right path towards their 'reconstruction'," he claims with pride.

Nine-year-old Ali lost part of his family in a Boko Haram raid and has said nothing for days on end, but he manages to whisper: "I escaped from Boko Haram and I feel good here."

For Ali's father, wealthy bell pepper grower Elhadj Gremah, forced exile is sheer "humiliation".

"In the village, my children had all they needed to eat. Here they don't go to school and they sometimes sleep on empty stomachs," he complains.

At Assaga, huts supported with tree branches compete with standard-issue tents provided by the United Nations. First created by UN staff three months ago, the camp looks like a shantytown.

Children sing and dance in a refugee camp in Assaga, Niger

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that some 1.4 million children have fled Islamist attacks in Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad in the past five months.

These regional nations have joined forces against Boko Haram as the Islamists have launched bloody cross-border raids.

"The flow of refugees and the lack of resources seriously compromises our ability to provide vital aid on the ground," the UN agency recently reported.

During a visit to the Diffa zone in mid-September, Toby Lanzer, the UN regional humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel, remarked on the "very severe security crisis" at Assaga.

"The situation here is atrocious," he added. "People are traumatised."

Diffa has for three years been confronted with food shortages because of successive periods of drought and floods. The arrival of about 150,000 refugees since 2013 has worsened the situation for local poor people.

"We have to act right now to save lives," insists Rotimy Djossaya, the local chief of the American NGO CARE. The authorities warn that Niger, a deeply poor country, could face another food crisis in 2016 because of a poor harvest.

80 Children Rescued From Boko Haram Don't Know Who They Are

One would think that the rescue of 80 children from Boko Haram would make a good news story, even a good-news story. But this is the first I have heard of their rescue, apparently in November, and, I cannot even find any reference to it on the internet. I know it's very frustrating getting news out of central Africa, but that just seems ridiculous to me.

Cameroon Army

About 80 children rescued from a Boko Haram camp in Cameroon cannot remember their own names or origins, according to an aid official who visited them.

The children - aged between 5 and 18 - did not speak English, French or any local languages, says Christopher Fomunyoh, a director for the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI).

The children were found at a camp in northern Cameroon in November.

Nigeria-based Boko Haram militants have extended their campaign into Cameroon.

The militants are fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in north-eastern Nigeria.

They control several towns and villages in the region and recently pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) militants, who have seized large areas of Syria and Iraq.

'Lost touch'
The children were rescued in Cameroon after security forces - acting on a tip-off - raided what was thought to have been a Koranic school.

Mr Fomunyoh told the BBC's Randy Joe Sa'ah in Yaounde that he had visited an orphanage that was helping rehabilitate the children.

He said the children had spent so long with their captors, being indoctrinated in jihadist ideology, that they had lost track of who they were.

"They've lost touch with their parents," he said. "They've lost touch with people in their villages, they're not able to articulate, to help trace their relationships, they can't even tell you what their names are."

What a horrible feeling it must be to have no idea who you are or where you are from. It's like waking up with amnesia. Please pray for these children and those who are tasked with finding their families.

Meanwhile, a suspected Boko Haram attack on Tuesday killed at least six people at a marketplace in the northern Nigerian town of Maiduguri.

The suicide bombing was reportedly carried out by a middle-aged woman.