LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The
children's drawings show men with guns, a coffin, a car exploding. One
picture has stick-like figures of eight siblings missed by their teenage
sister.
The disturbing images come from some of an estimated
800,000 children forced from the homes by Boko Haram extremists,
according to a UNICEF report published Monday.
It
says the number of refugee children has doubled in the past year,
making them about half of all the 1.5 million Nigerians made homeless in
the Islamic uprising.
"Children
have become deliberate targets, often subjected to extreme violence -
from sexual abuse and forced marriage to kidnappings and brutal
killings," the report says. "Children have also become weapons, made to
fight alongside armed groups and at times used as human bombs."
The
number of children absent from primary school in Nigeria has increased
from 8 million in 2007 to 10.5 million- the highest figure in the world,
it says. Boko Haram has targeted schools, destroying or severely
damaging more than 300 and killing 314 students and 196 teachers, UNICEF
says.
The nickname of Nigeria's home-grown Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram, means "Western education is forbidden" or sinful.
One
picture in the UNICEF report shows stick figures of the eight siblings
missed by Rita, a 14-year-old living in a refugee camp in neighboring
Chad with her mother, father and one younger sister. They became
separated when Boko Haram attacked the Nigerian town of Baga, and she
knows how worried they must be.
"When you have your mother around,
you (are) not worried about anything. But if she is missing ... you are
worried the whole time," the report quotes Rita as saying.
Called
"Missing Childhoods," the report was published ahead of the first
anniversary of the mass kidnappings the night of April 14-15, 2014, of
nearly 300 schoolgirls from Chibok. Dozens escaped on their own but 219
remain missing.
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