Borno Governor Shettima sponsoring recruitment of child soldiers, America says
By Rotimi Akinola
Boys who should be busy schooling are handed rifles and deployed to fight Boko Haram in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, the American government is alleging.
The U. S. Department of States said state governor Kashim Shettima, who visited the White House recently, is one of the major people making funding a vigilante group notorious for recruiting boy soldiers.
Shettima was on President Muhammadu Buhari’s delegation to the United States where Nigeria’s war on terror was a major talking point.
Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) – a local vigilante group assisting the Nigerian military in the fight against Boko Haram – is believed to be recruiting child soldiers to prosecute the anti-terror war.
America’s Department of States said Shettima has not stopped funding the group despite the widely condemned practice.
“The (Nigerian) government prohibited the recruitment and use of child soldiers and issued official statements condemning such use,” The Department of States said in a report it released on Monday.
“However, the CJTF continued to recruit and use child soldiers during the reporting period.
“Despite these efforts, during the reporting period, the Borno State government provided financial and in-kind resources to the CJTF, which recruited and used child soldiers.”
The U. S. government said Shettima will do well to stop funding CJTF until the group stops recruiting boy soldiers.
America’s Leahy Law forbids the U. S. from selling weapons to Army units that violate human rights or use child soldiers.
Buhari, during his U. S. visit had suggested that America was hiding behind that law to avoid selling weapons to Nigeria.
He suggested that particular policy was giving Boko Haram undue advantage.
The American’s have told Buhari to focus on riding Nigeria’s military units, several accused violating human rights, of their abusive tendencies.
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