End Child Soldiers’ Recruitment, UNICEF Warns Nigeria

End Child Soldiers’ Recruitment, UNICEF Warns Nigeria
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The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has called authorities in Nigeria to immediately take measures to bring the recruitment and use of children by armed groups in the country to an end.

Africa Daily News, New York reports that the organisation has also demanded the release of those in the custody of such groups to extend support for former child soldiers in northeast Nigeria.

In a statement which was made available to newsmen on Monday, UNICEF Chief of Maiduguri Field Office Phuong Nguyen called on the Nigerian authorities to sign the Handover Protocol for children encountered in the course of armed conflict in the country and the Lake Chad Basin Region which would end the detention of children formerly associated with armed groups.

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The call was made on the occasion of International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers otherwise known as ‘Red Hand Day’.

Africa Daily News, New York reports that February 13th yearly is a day mapped out to commemorate it.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has recently declared that lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed no fewer than 1.6bn children out of school.

This was contained in a report to mark the agency’s 75th anniversary, which explained that schools were closed worldwide for almost 80 per cent of the in-person instruction during the first year of the pandemic.

In the report titled, ‘COVID-19 ‘biggest global crisis for children in our 75-year history’ – UNICEF’, the agency described the pandemic as one of its biggest crises since its inception.

The report also noted that mental health conditions affected more than 13 per cent of adolescents aged 10–19 worldwide. By October 2020, the pandemic had disrupted or halted critical mental health services in 93 per cent of countries worldwide.

In a response to the report, UNICEF called for more investment in social protection, ensuring quality education for every child, children’s protection from crises, and an end to the pandemic.

AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK

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