The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF has said that the ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram operating in Nigeria has abducted over 1000 children from the northeast of the country since 2013.
The militants regularly took youngsters to spread fear and show power, the agency said on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, a case that triggered global outrage.
The Boko Haram conflict is in its tenth year but shows little sign of ending, but the government said that the recent release of the Dapchi girls alluded to ceasefire talks with the militants. Boko Haram which is affiliated to ISIS has been perpetrating violence in Nigeria and spreading to neighboring countries as they seek to establish an Islamic caliphate that denounced western education.
