“Teachers of these subjects are targeted”, says the report.
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And violence is not the only threat facing children in the region.
More than 2.6 million people have fled their homes since, but some of the internally displaced have recently begun returning after the Nigerian military captured swathes of territory back from the insurgents.
People who have escaped Boko Haram have reported a systematic program for training women and girls to be bombers. This situation is made worse by the Nigerian army’s policy of using schools as military bases and therefore increasing the risk of attack.
UNICEF’s report Beyond Chibok says the boys abducted and recruited into Boko Haram’s ranks are forced to attack their own families as a “loyalty test”.
UNICEF has determined that using children as tools of war has become core to the militant group’s strategy.
“There was a situation where some people came looking for water for absolution”.
Nigeria has seen 17 and Chad two, the UNICEF report found.
It says that a total of 600 school staff have been murdered by Boko Haram since 2009, and that 19,000 have quit their jobs due to threats and attacks.
Almost 1.3 million schoolchildren have been displaced by the conflict, according to UNICEF, including 5,000 children separated from their parents.
Segun said: “Boko Haram’s attacks and the government’s neglect and misuse of schools have contributed to the dismal state of education in the northeast”.
Beyond Chibok assesses the impact conflict has had on children in the four countries affected by Boko Haram.
Nigeria’s Cable reports that the girls abducted by the group are driven to take part in suicide bombings by sexual abuse. Numerous girls captured by the group are sexually assaulted and forced to marry Boko Haram fighters.
UNICEF said as more girls are being used to carry bombs, the former captives often have been met with suspicion when they’ve been freed.
Manuel Fontaine, the UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa, said in a statement the trend will have long-term consequences for the African nations.
They wanted a way out, she says. “This suspicion towards children can have destructive consequences”.
“Deceiving children and forcing them to carry out deadly acts has been one of the most horrific aspects of the violence in Nigeria and in neighbouring countries”.
The girls who are used by Boko Haram for bombings are often drugged and then explosives are strapped to their bodies.
“It was just because they want to run away from Boko Haram”, she said. The frequency of all suicide bombings increased from 32 in 2014 to 151 in 2015.
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The militant group has set out to impose strict Islamic law in northern Nigeria, including waging war on Western-style education.
