Senegal arrests suspected Boko Haram recruiter

A suspected recruiter for Boko Haram has been arrested in Senegal as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns that militants from the group are increasingly forcing children to carry out bombings, with the number of attacks since January already nearly reaching the total for all of last year.
Senegalese police confirmed yesterday they arrested the Nigerian on April 1 in a Dakar suburb. Police said the suspect was known to Nigerian intelligence services and had been in Mauritania for some months before coming to Senegal to recruit on behalf of Boko Haram.
Senegal police also said they arrested two Moroccans at the international airport who had been linked to the Islamic State group. The two men, who police said came from a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey, denied association with the extremist group. Police said they came to Senegal for its proximity to Morocco. Senegal has increased security following major attacks by al-Qaida-linked militants in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali.
In a new report released in Dakar yesterday, UNICEF said at least 117 attacks have been carried out by youth in the Lake Chad basin region since 2014, with nearly 80 percent of the bombs strapped to girls, who were sometimes drugged before their missions.
The very sight of children near marketplaces and checkpoints is sparking fear, according to Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF’s regional director for West and Central Africa. As a result, nearly 1,500 children were detained last year across Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
“These children are victims, not perpetrators,” Poirier said. “Forcing or deceiving them into committing such horrific acts is reprehensible.” Children have been used to carry out 27 attacks in the first three months of this year, after 30 such attacks last year.
The new report coincides with this week’s third anniversary of the mass abduction of Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
UNICEF emphasized that beyond the high-profile Chibok abductions, the practice of kidnapping children and forcing them to associate with the armed group has been prevalent.
“Young girls are spotted in the markets, and nighttime raids drag them from their beds. In some cases, parents are killed in front of the girls during the process,” it said.
“This is typically followed by an extended journey to a Boko Haram base in the forest where the girls are forced into early marriage and sexual slavery.”
UNICEF also called for the community reintegration of children who were once under Boko Haram’s control, saying many are stigmatized and feared. However, a $154 million appeal last year for the Lake Chad basin region remains only 40 percent funded, the agency said.