An investigation conducted by Reuters, an international news agency, has revealed how top military commanders order officers to kill children born to insurgents.
The report which was published on Monday showed the inhumane activities carried out by the military on the instructions of top officials.
According to the report, this intentional killing of children was carried out because the officials considered kids fathered by Boko Haram members to be potential insurgents.
A witness who was identified in the report as a soldier confessed that he enjoyed killing children who were suspected to be fathered by insurgents due to the belief that they may grow up to become insurgents.
“The children were assumed to be collaborating with militants in Boko Haram or its Islamic
State offshoot, or to have inherited the tainted blood of insurgent fathers.
“Soldiers often cited as a reason for killing children the belief that if their fathers were insurgents, then they would grow up to be the same,” the report reads.
“The killing was also a way for some officers to avenge heavy losses in fighting with Islamist insurgents, or for soldiers to vent their anger over the deaths of their comrades.”
Reuters noted in its report that although it was unable to ascertain the specific number of children that have been killed in the military’s operation against insurgents.
The six specific incidents investigated by its reporters accounted for the death of at least 60 children.
The international news agency said more than 40 soldiers and civilians interviewed for the investigation said they witnessed officers of the Nigerian military kill children or saw children’s corpses after a military operation.
“Intentional killings of children have occurred with a blurring frequency across the region during the war, according to witnesses interviewed by Reuters,” the investigation read in part.
“More than 40 sources said they saw the Nigerian military target and kill children or saw the dead bodies of children after a military operation.
“These sources included both parents and other civilian witnesses, as well as soldiers who said they participated in dozens of military operations in which children were slaughtered.
Together, their estimates added up to thousands of children killed.”
Similarly, last week, an investigation published by Reuters accused the Nigerian Army of carrying out illegal abortions on victims of insurgency in the north-east.
But the army denied this, claiming that it has never forced rescued women and girls to abort pregnancies.
The military said its men are not also killing children as part of counterinsurgency operations.
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