聯合國:兒童淪爲博科聖地自殺式恐襲武器

The number of children used by Nigeria's Boko Haram to stage suicide bombings has risen more than 10-fold in one of the most "horrific" aspects of the Islamist insurgency, the United Nations said on last Tuesday.

聯合國上週二宣佈，尼日利亞的伊斯蘭極端武裝組織“博科聖地”利用兒童發動自殺式爆炸襲擊的數量已經增加了10倍。

Experts said the group, which has been weakened by a multinational military offensive, is now trying to spread terror by using children for attacks in crowded markets, mosques and even camps for people fleeing Boko Haram violence.

專家表示，雖然“博科聖地”被多國部隊重創，但這一組織現在正在嘗試利用兒童在人員聚集的集市、清真寺、甚至難民營內發動自殺式襲擊。

This has had disastrous consequences for children, especially girls, who had survived captivity and sexual violence by Boko Haram, said a report by UN children's agency UNICEF.

聯合國兒童基金會的一份報告顯示，這已經對兒童，特別是對女童來說造成了災難性的後果。這些女童曾被“博科聖地”囚禁並遭到了性暴力。

"The number of children involved in 'suicide' attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger has risen sharply over the past year, from four in 2014 to 44 in 2015," UNICEF said. "More than 75 percent of the children involved in such attacks are girls."

聯合國兒童基金會表示：“在尼日利亞、喀麥隆、乍得和尼日爾，捲入自殺式襲擊的兒童數量大幅上升，從2014年的4人增至2015年的44人。”從性別看，捲入自殺式襲擊的兒童中，75％爲女童。

"Let us be clear: these children are victims, not perpetrators," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF regional director for west and central Africa. "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."

聯合國兒童基金會西非及中非地區的負責人曼紐爾·方丹說： “我們要明確一點：這些孩子是受害者，而不是災難製造者。欺騙兒童，迫使他們進行致命的行爲一直是尼日利亞及其鄰國最聳人聽聞的暴力行徑。”

The report was released two years after Boko Haram kidnapped 276 teenagers in the dead of night from the small town of Chibok in northern Nigeria. A total of 219 students are still missing.

這項報告是在尼日利亞切布克鎮276名青少年遭“博科聖地”武裝分子綁架事件發生之後兩年發佈的。截至目前爲止，仍有219名學生下落不明。

Last year, children were used in one out of every two attacks in Cameroon, one out of eight in Chad, and one out of seven in Nigeria.

去年，在喀麥隆，二分之一的自殺式炸彈襲擊者是兒童，乍得這一數據爲八分之一，尼日利亞爲七分之一。

An estimated 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram launched its campaign of violence in 2009 to carve out a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.

據估計，自從2009年“博科聖地”在尼日利亞東北部開拓出一條強硬的“伊斯蘭國”路線以來，已經有20000人被殺害了。