The International Crisis Group (ICG) has urged the Nigerian government to redouble efforts to prevent any further abduction of children by the Islamist insurgent group, Boko Haram.
The call is contained in a report titled “Preventing Boko Haram Abductions of Schoolchildren in Nigeria”, published by the Brussels-based conflict research and peace advocacy organization today (12 April). The publication comes just ahead of the fourth anniversary of Boko Haram’s kidnap of over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok on 14 April 2014.
The group said government should strengthen security for children and schools in the north east, by deploying more security personnel to the region and the army to pull out personnel from essentially police duties countrywide and concentrate them on the north-east.
It also urge the police to recall most of its 150,000 personnel that are guarding politicians and so-called VIPs, and re-assign some of them to the region.
The report calls for sustained effort towards rescuing the over 100 Chibok girls still held by the insurgents. It also calls for release of Leah Sharibu, the lone girl still held by a Boko Haram faction, since its 19 February abduction of over 100 school girls in Dapchi, Yobe state, as well as all other children abducted by insurgents over the years.
It further called on the federal government to launch a credible investigation into the circumstances that enabled the Dapchi abduction. Noting that the National Security Adviser to the President had already commenced an investigation, and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to go beyond that and constitute an independent, non-partisan committee including members from outside the military, security and governmental agencies, to probe the incident.
It added that the government should probe the inadequate implementation of the Safe Schools Initiative (SSI) since it was launched in 2014, particularly the non-provision of security infrastructure in schools.