Nigeria's Boko Haram conflict: Huge rise in child 'human bombs'

The Boko Haram insurgency has devastated many lives across north-eastern Nigeria

There has been a significant increase in the number of children used as human bombs by Boko Haram militants in north-east Nigeria, the United Nations says.

Unicef reports there have been 83 cases so far this year - four times as many as in the whole of last year.

55 were girls under the age of 15 and in one case the bomb was strapped to a baby being carried by a young girl.

Unicef says this tactic is an atrocity causing fear and suspicion of children released by the militants.

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According to the UN children's agency, 127 children have been used as bombers in north-east Nigeria since 2014.

The Islamist militants Boko Haram have regularly used children in its insurgency, abducting hundreds of schoolgirls, and forcibly recruiting boys as child soldiers.