By Winifred Bulus
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has expressed its determination to rescue about six hundred women, children and elderly men from military detention in Maiduguri, Borno, Nigeria to reunite them with their families.
This was contained in a press statement issued by the organization which revealed efforts made to reunite the detainees with their families and protect their human rights.
“The action of the Nigerian army today is a major step towards the protection of children affected by the ongoing crisis. It provides hope in a conflict that continues to have an enormous impact on people’s lives.”
“These children were held under administrative custody on alleged association with Boko Haram militants. They are victims of the conflict and it is crucial that they receive medical care, psychosocial support and other basic services that will help them to regain their dignity.
“Once that process of recovery has started, we can help them to return to their families and to school or learn new skills that will give them some hope for the future,” the statement explained.
UNICEF has also declared that the rights of children should be safe guarded against national and international standards which puts a child’s safety first before anything else.
It also stated that if at all children have to be held for a military screening, they should not be held for too long.
The detainees have been under military detention for a while and a number of them lost their lives due to hunger, dehydration, disease and others.
Boko Haram insurgents have been carrying out attacks in Nigeria for 17 years and more than 20,000 people have died in their attacks, with over 2 million others displaced.
They have used women and children to carry out suicide attacks. This therefore led to the detention of many suspects in a Military detention Camp in Borno (northeast Nigeria) for military screening.
