UN gets release of 876 children detained by Nigeria military

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Porter said many of the freed children were under 5 years old, some still being breast-fed, and were detained because their parents were suspects. Nigeria’s military and police routinely lock up children along with parents suspected of a crime.

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In the biggest single release negotiated by UNICEF, 560 people were freed in September, including 430 children and some of their mothers, Porter said.

Those detained have been held in Maiduguri, the city that is the birthplace of Boko Haram and the home of the Nigerian army’s Giwa Barracks. All of the detainees at the barracks are held because of suspected support for Boko Haram.

The Associated Press has documented the deaths of thousands of detainees in unsanitary, overcrowded and inhumane conditions at Giwa Barracks in recent years. Amnesty International has said 8,000 detainees died there between 2011 and 2015. This year, Amnesty called for the detention centre’s closure, saying babies and children are among the many detainees dying from disease, hunger, dehydration and untreated gunshot wounds.

Ministry of Defence spokesman Brig Gen. Rabe Abubakar has called the charges by the London-based human rights group “a distraction,” insisting that “our duty is to protect lives, and that is what we have been doing.”

Once freed from detention, the often malnourished and traumatized children face other challenges, Porter said. “All of the people who have been held in territories that were occupied by Boko Haram face a lot of distrust and fear from their communities, so they have been widely regarded with suspicion.”

Boko Haram’s use of child suicide bombers, often females, has contributed to the fear.

The extremist group’s seven-year uprising has killed more than 20,000 people, spread across Nigeria’s borders and forced 2.6 million from their homes.

Michelle Faul, The Associated Press