Global rights group, Amnesty International, has condemned the treatment of children arrested for allegedly engaging in terrorism.
Amnesty International claimed that the children are usually locked up with adult terrorists who sexually abuse them while military officials turn a blind eye.
The rights group revealed this in its latest report titled, ‘We dried our tears: Addressing the toll on children of Northeast Nigeria’s conflict’.
It examined how the military’s unlawful detention and torture have compounded the sufferings of children from Borno and Adamawa States who had already suffered in the hands of Boko Haram.
The report read in part;
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.
Amnesty International noted that the country must urgently address its failure of protecting and providing education for an entire generation of children in the North-East, a region ravaged for years by Boko Haram insurgents.
The report further stated that between November 2019 and April 2020, the group interviewed more than 230 people affected by the conflict, including 119 who were children when they suffered in the hands of Boko Haram and the Nigerian military.
It asserted that the children are held in military detention for months or years with adult terrorists.
According to the report;
Most of the detentions are unlawful; children are never charged or prosecuted for any crime and are denied the rights to access a lawyer, appear before a judge, or communicate with their families.
The human rights group stated that the unlawful detentions may amount to a crime against humanity.
