Child soldiers are victims of terror and graft

Twin blasts within 24 hours killed 49 people in two towns of the country. What's shocking is that girls as young as 11 and 18 were used as suicide bombers by the group to commit the deadly acts which also left 200 injured. Did these children know what they were doing? Certainly not. Their lives did not matter to the powers that be. Reactions to this violence has been muted, or silent. Social media has gone quiet.
And we're not even talking condemnation from international leaders. There are no calls to save the children from the hands of terrorists. They are simply forgotten combatants who have lost their childhood to violence. In a sinister way, these kids have no fear or death and are willing to kill for their terror masters.
The children involved in Tuesday's and Wednesday's attacks were driven to busy markets in Yola and Kano by the terrorists to become both victims and perpetrators when they blew themselves up. Reports said the van carried other wannabe child suicide bombers, who will be used in more such attacks by the group.
Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to Daesh, is running amok in Nigeria. It has become the most deadliest group in the world, according to the Global Terrorism Index compiled by the Insitute for Economics and Peace.
Terror attacks in Nigeria have gone up by 300 per cent, to 7,512 fatalities this year. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, only recently, said the dreaded group was close to defeat, but the attacks over the last two days, shows that Daesh and its African affiliate have major violent plans for the continent - and it involves children - who are lured, abducted, tortured , indoctrinated and told to blast themselves and other innocents.
More than 200,000 children are being used in conflicts by militant groups across the world. It is well known that Daesh recruits and trains teenagers, but Boko Haram has gone one step further and uses them as human shields and suicide bombers. A majority of kids are kidnapped and forced to join the group, but some join to seek revenge for the deaths of their loved ones in the civil strife that has spun out of control in the country.
According to estimates, Boko Haram has 10,000 soldiers in its ranks, and 40 per cent of them are children! That's a chilling figure. How do you put in place a strategy to fight these child foot soldiers and suicide bombers who have been brainwashed and are unafraid to die? These children are called the Cubs of the Caliphate and are trained to fight to the death.
Nigeria and the world do not have answers on how to integrate these lost children into society. First they will have to win the war against Boko Haram. But that fight is going nowhere because $5.5 billion allocated for the campaign has been pilfered by those in power. Not only has Nigeria lost its money to terrorism, it is losing its children too.