Armed Groups Killing, Recruiting More Children in Niger, Report Says
Voice of America
ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST - Increasing numbers of children are being killed or targeted for recruitment by armed groups in conflicts raging at Niger’s borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, Amnesty International said in a report published Monday.
"In Niger’s Tillaberi region, an entire generation is growing up surrounded by death and destruction," said Matt Wells, Amnesty's deputy director for crisis response. "Armed groups have repeatedly attacked schools and reserves, and are targeting children for recruitment,” he added in a statement. Amnesty blamed the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) and the al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), for causing the "devastating impact on children" in the region.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.