By
Chioma Umeha
The United Nations (UN) and Civilian Joint Task
Force (CJTF) weekend, signed an action plan to end and prevent the recruitment
and use of children in the armed conflict in the North-East.
The CJTF is a youth vigilance group established
by the government and people of Borno State at the peak of the Boko Haram
insurgency to tackle the Boko Haram insurgents.
The group, which is made up of volunteers, has
been accused alongside the warring Boko Haram sect of recruiting children in the ongoing insurgency in the
North-east.
In order to set the record straight, the group
signed an action plan with the United Nations supervised by the Borno State
Deputy Governor, Alhaji Usman Durkwa, at the Pinnacle Hotel, Maiduguri.
According to the plan, CJTF will identify and
release all children within its ranks and instruct its members not to recruit
or use children in the future.
CJTF president Lawan Jaffar and the UNICEF
country representative Mohamed Fall co-signed the plan in Borno in the presence
of Borno’s deputy solicitor-general Abdullahi Izge.
“We have seen too many childhoods destroyed by
the crisis in the northeast,”said Fall.
“Today’s agreement is an important milestone for
child protection and paves the way for a brighter future for children caught up
in the conflict.”
UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and
Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, signed the action plan in New York as a witness, insisting it “brings hope
for boys and girls deeply affected by the conflict in northeast Nigeria.”
