A media group associated with the
Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has published two images which
reveal a military training camp for children in northeastern Nigeria.
The
organisation, al-Urwa al-Wuthaqa, shows the children dressed in dark
clothing with their heads covered by garments. In one photo, the
children are aiming their guns while in another they are posing with the
weapons.
The
Long War Journal claims that both young girls and boys are present in
the photos, while some are holding AK47 assault rifles, others are
holding cutouts of weapons.
According to
Max Abrahms, professor of political science at Northwestern University
and member at the Council of Foreign Relations, Boko Haram uses child
soldiers in order to boost its membership numbers.
READ MORE AND SEE MORE PHOTOS AFTER THE CUT.........................
“Terrorist
organisations have power in numbers. The more members in the group, the
greater its capability. There is a correlation between the membership
size of a terrorist group and its ability to inflict bloodshed,” he
said.
“Terrorist groups will often try to amass the most members as possible even if they’re young boys or girls.”
Andrew
Noakes, coordinator of the Nigeria Security Network, says the group are
struggling to recruit fighters, having “started alienating local people
across northeast Nigeria with their brutal tactics”.
“To
fill the gap they’ve turned to recruiting children and recruiting in
neighbouring countries,” he says. “Boko Haram often uses its child
soldiers and other forced recruits to form the first wave of an attack,
before sending in the more experienced fighters to finish off
operations.”
Abrahms also believes that
because the group has ambitions of creating an eternal caliphate, in the
same vein as ISIS, it indoctrinates children in the hope that its
message will be continued by the young soldiers.
“[ISIS]
has ambitions in building up a caliphate for eternity. I think Boko
Haram shares this aspiration certainly in Nigeria and the indoctrination
of youth is important not just for fielding an army against the
Nigerian military, but also breeding a future generation of like-minded
sympathisers.”
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