The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday revealed that since 2013, more than 1,000 children have been abducted by Boko
Haram in the North-eastern part of Nigeria, including 276 girls taken from
their secondary school in the town of Chibok, Borno State, in 2014.
In a statement signed by its communication
specialist, Eva Hinds, the UNICEF disclosed that four years on from that tragic
incident, more than 100 of the ‘Chibok girls’ are yet to be returned to their
families as the UN children’s agency continues to call for their release.
In the statement, UNICEF representative in Nigeria,
Mohammed Malick Fall, said since the conflict started in the North-eastern
Nigeria nearly nine years ago, at least 2,295 teachers have been killed and
more than 1,400 schools have been destroyed, leaving most of these schools closed because of
extensive damage or ongoing insecurity.
He said: "The four-year anniversary of the
Chibok abduction reminds us that children in the North-east region continue to
come under attack at a shocking scale. They are consistently targeted and
exposed to brutal violence in their homes, schools and public places.
"These repeated attacks against children in
schools are unconscionable. Children have the right to education and
protection, and the classroom must be a place where they are safe from harm.
"The recent attack on a school in Dapchi,
Yobe State, in which five girls lost their lives is just the latest indication
that there are few safe spaces left for children in the Northeast. Not even
schools are spared from violence.”
The statement further stated that Nigerian
authorities have made a commitment to make schools safer and more resilient to
attack, and UNICEF vowed to stand with them to implement the Safe Schools
Declaration, by which Nigeria commits to protecting schools and universities
from violence and military use during armed conflict.
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