Challenges

• Detention of children for their alleged association with armed groups.
• Continued grave violations in the North-West and South-West Regions, particularly the denial of humanitarian access, including the detention of humanitarian personnel and attacks on schools, including the killing and abduction of teachers and students.

Recommendations

To the Government: 

•  To extend training to all defence and security forces.
• To ensure that disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes consider the specific needs and rights of children formerly associated with armed groups and to allow child protection actors access to all disarmament, demobilization and reintegration centres.
• To strengthen the protection of children, including by ensuring accountability for grave violations against children.
• To treat children primarily as victims, with detention as a measure of last resort, and to release all children in its custody.
• To adopt a handover protocol for children associated with armed groups to civilian child protection actors.

To all parties:

• To immediately cease all violations and protect schools and hospitals and prevent their military use.
• To encourage Boko Haram-affiliated and splinter groups in the Far North Region to put an end to violations and immediately release associated children.