This archive report was first published on 7 October 2019.
On Thursday, the Nigerian army released 25 children who had been suspected of ties with armed Islamist groups in the country's northeast region. The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) confirmed the release, stating that the children had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Nigeria has been fighting an insurgency by Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group, in the northeastern states for over a decade. The conflict has resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 people and has drawn in thousands of children, who have been recruited by the group.
Unicef's Nigeria Acting Representative, Pernille Ironside, said that the children had been 'deprived of their childhood, education, healthcare, and of the chance to grow up in a safe and enabling environment.'
The released children will receive medical support, education, and vocational training, according to Unicef.
The release comes as part of a broader effort to address the issue of children being held captive in Nigeria. In recent weeks, there have been several high-profile cases of children being freed from captivity, including almost 900 children who were freed by a regional militia in May and 19 women and girls who were freed by police in Lagos earlier this week.
Unicef is working to ensure that all children affected by the conflict are reunited with their families. Since 2016, a total of 2,499 people, including 1,627 children, have been cleared of association with non-state armed groups in Nigeria.
