Armed groups in the Northeast recruited boys for frontlines, girls for something worse

Picture the figure first. 1,120 children recruited by armed groups in Nigeria's Northeast in 2024 alone. 525 boys. 595 girls. Across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe. UNICEF disclosed this last week in Maiduguri on the International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers.

Not 1,120 statistics. 1,120 children with names, with mothers, with a school they used to attend before the options ran out.

This conflict is 13 years old. You've watched Nigeria spend billions on fighter jets and armoured vehicles and military operations named after force and resolve. Here's what none of that addressed: boys join armed groups because they have no school, no food, and no believable future. Girls are taken because their communities have nothing between them and men with weapons and a promise of belonging. Hardware doesn't solve that. It never did.

UNICEF warned that early signs point to a possible rise in the 2025 figures. The official count is still being collected.

The government describes this conflict as largely defeated. 1,120 children in 2024 is what largely defeated looks like.