Photo: UNICEF

Progress

• CJTF’s efforts to implement the action plan to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children, including the separation of 2,203 children in previous years;
• Significant decrease in recruitment by CJTF;
• Government’s constructive role in the action plan implementation;
• Government’s investigation into the sexual violence case attributed to CJTF.

Challenges

• Serious concerns about grave violations perpetrated by JAS and ISWAP, in particular the abduction, attacks on schools, and killing and maiming of children;
• Concerns about the children remaining in detention for alleged association with armed groups.

Recommendations

For the Government:

• To treat all children formerly associated with armed groups as victims, with detention as a measure of last resort, and to release all children in its custody;
• To adopt a protocol for the handover of children associated with armed groups to civilian child protection actors, and to immediately provide access for the United Nations to all detained children.

For the CJTF:

• To ensure the sustainability of the action plan, by creating child protection units in all its formations, instituting accountability mechanisms and enforcing zero tolerance on child recruitment and use.

For all parties:

• To end and prevent violations and allow and facilitate safe, timely and unimpeded humanitarian access to children.