Boko Haram kidnapped 10,000 boys, forced them to become child soldiers
By Mark Ellis, Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
NIGERIA (ANS - August 25, 2016)
-- The world was horrified when the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram
kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in 2014. But less
coverage has been given to the kidnapping of more than 10,000 boys over
the last three years by the terror group and their brutal coercion
tactics, forcing children to wage jihad.
The allegations are contained in a stunning investigative report by Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Shortly
after the Chibok schoolgirls were seized, Boko Haram attacked six
villages in the nearby mountains and rounded up children there, with
little media coverage beyond the Nigerian press.
A
few months later, the group captured the town of Damasak, and took 300
students, mostly boys, age 7 to 17. The militants imprisoned them in a
school, witnesses told the WSJ. Their parents were held in separate rooms. For months, the children were forced to learn the Quran.
Eventually, Boko Haram ditched the parents and fled with the children.
In
the forest outside Maiduguri, Boko Haram ran one of their boot camps
for boys. Children as young as 5-years-old learned to handle assault
rifles and practice marching. Their weapon instructor was only 15
himself.
“I
was terrified if I didn’t do it, they would kill me,” the teen
instructor told the WSJ. He was kidnapped by the radical group in 2014
but later escaped.
“What
is happening here in northeastern Nigeria is part of a disturbing rise
in child jihadism. Young boys and at times girls are being indoctrinated
into violent fundamentalism and used as fighters, suicide bombers and
spies,” the WSJ noted.
Al
Qaeda’s branches in Yemen, Somalia and Mali are also using child
soldiers. Islamic State (ISIS) has used children in combat, suicide
bombings and in execution videos in Iraq and Syria.
The WSJ
interviewed 16 young Nigerians who escaped the snare of Boko Haram,
along with other witnesses, soldiers, researchers, officials and
diplomats in Nigeria and Cameroon, who all paint a deeply disturbing
portrait.
The
boys were sent into battle, often unarmed, frequently numbed by drugs.
Many of the boys were beaten and some died of starvation or thirst.
Photo
captions: 1) Latest Boko Haram video of some of the missing Chibok
schoolgirls. 2) Trained for war. 3) Boy soldiers rescued by Chad’s army.
4) Mark Ellis.
About the writer: Mark Ellis is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net), and also the founder of www.GodReports.com,
a website that shares testimonies and videos from the church around the
world to build interest and involvement in world missions. Mark is also
co-host with ANS founder, Dan Wooding, of "Windows on the World," a
weekly TV show broadcast on the Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network (http://hsbn.tv),
that features the top stories of the week on the ASSIST News Service.
(Note: Dan Wooding was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents).
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