Child suicide bombings surge in Boko Haram conflict: UNICEF

The use of children as suicidebombers byBokoHarammilitantshas surged in 2017, theUnited Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in areportreleasedWednesday.

In the countries fighting Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad 27 children have been usedin suicide attacks by the armed Islamist group in the firstthree months of the year, UNICEF said.

There were nine cases in the same period last year, and 30children used for bombings in all of 2016, it said. Most weregirls.

The Boko Haram insurgency is now in its eighth year withlittle sign of ending, having claimed over 20,000 lives. Its child kidnappings gained global notoriety after the abduction of more than 200 girls from the town of Chibok in Nigeria's
northeast in 2014, three years ago on Friday.

• 21 of Nigeria's Chibok schoolgirls released by Boko Haram

Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands, often raping them,forcing them to become suicide bombers, help the militants intheir conflict or marry fighters, UNICEF said.

"These children are victims, not perpetrators," saidMarie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF's regional director for West and Central Africa."Forcing or deceiving them into committing such horrificacts is reprehensible.

One 16-year-old girl from Chad lost her legs after beingdrugged and forced by Boko Haram to take part in an attempted suicide attack on a crowded market, according to UNICEF'sreport.

Though the girl survived, her family initially rejected her"out of fear of stigma."

• Teen girl sent by Boko Haram rips off suicide vest, refuses to bomb refugee camp

Children who escape Boko Haram are often held in custody byauthorities or ostracized by their communities and families.

About 370 remain in custody, a UNICEF spokespersontoldReuters, after Nigeria's military on Monday released 593 people,including children, after clearing them of having ties with BokoHaram.

"Society's rejection of these children, and their sense ofisolation and desperation, could be making them more vulnerableto promises of martyrdom through acceptance of dangerous anddeadly missions," UNICEF said in its report.

Children make up 1.3 million of the 2.3 million peopledisplaced by the conflict.

• Nigerians forced to flee Boko Haram now face another risk starvation

UNICEF said its response to the crisis "remains severelyunderfunded,"hitting efforts to provide mental health and social support, reunite families and offer education, safe water and medical services.

Last year, the group received only two-fifths of the $154 US million it appealed for.

The United Nations says it needs $1.5 billion US inhumanitarian aid for the Lake Chad region this year, and $457 million US had been pledged for 2017 by late February.