UN warns about mass abductions of children by Takfiris

Senior UN officials have warned that mass kidnappings of children by Takfiri militant groups such as Boko Haram and the ISIL are on the rise in various parts of the globe.

Leila Zerrougui, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, told the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday that the practice has now turned into a tactic used systematically to suppress and terrorize communities.

“Mass abductions of women and children are becoming a tactic of war used systematically to terrorize, suppress and humiliate entire communities,” Zerrougui said

She also urged the 15-member council to strengthen measures for the protection of children in conflict and punish militant groups who target children with sanctions.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre, who chairs the council this month, suggested that perpetrators of abductions be placed on a UN blacklist of violators of children’s rights.

Speaking to the council, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon noted that UN agencies are confronting “more and more cases of child abductions.”

The remarks come amid reports of fresh mass kidnappings in the northeastern Nigerian city of Damasak in Borno state.

Local sources in the town of Damasak in Borno state say about 500 children aged 11 and younger were taken by the Takfiri militants as they fled the area.

Damasak is located near the country’s border with Niger.

With the help of soldiers from Chad and Niger, Nigerian forces liberated the town earlier this month. Damasak had been under the control of militants for four months.

Mike Omeri, the Nigerian spokesman for the fight against Boko Haram, has said hostages are being used as human shields.

“Boko Haram … rushed to primary schools, they took children and adults that they are using as shields to protect themselves from the menacing advance of troops,” said Omeri on Tuesday.

A number of Boko Haram Takfiris are seen in this undated photo.

Last April, the militants abducted over 200 schoolgirls in Borno’s Chibok town, drawing global criticism.

The Takfiri group, which has been wreaking havoc in Nigeria for the past six years, recently pledged allegiance to the ISIL terrorists operating in Iraq and Syria.

Meanwhile, UN rights investigators have recently said the ISIL has sold women and girls from Iraq’s Izadi Kurdish minority as sex slaves after their abduction.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has described 2014 as a devastating year for children. According to the UN children’s agency, up to 15 million children were deeply affected in wars in the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, the occupied Palestinian territories, Syria and Ukraine.