CIVILIAN JOINT TASK FORCE DE LISTED FROM GROUP OF ORGANISATION RECRUITING AND USING CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICTS.

For releasing over two thousand children from their ranks and reuniting them with their families, the Civilian Joint Taskforce has been delisted from the group of organisations recruiting and using children in armed conflicts in the North-East.

This, according to UNICEF in a statement signed by Phuong Nguyen, the chief of Maiduguri field office on Monday (Oct., 18), is one step forward for the protection of children in the subregion that has been ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency in the past twelve years.

In a report recently released by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, the delisting is as a result of continued deradicalization of children and increased number of enrolments of these children into schools since the action plan was signed into law in 2017.

At the height of its operations in 2016, the CJTF was listed in the annexes of the Secretary- General’s Annual Report for Children and Armed Conflict. But since signing the 2017 Action Plan, the group has released more than 2,000 children from its ranks, with many of the children enrolled in school and provided with psychosocial support.