(Business in Cameroon) - In anticipation of the United Nations Summit on refugees and migrants (19 September), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has just published a report entitled “Children on the move, children left behind” which analyses the impact of Islamist group Boko Haram’s insurrection on children in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

This report indicates that approximately 38 children were used to commit suicide attacks in these four countries of the Lake Chad region since the beginning of the year. Which brings to 86 the total number of children used in this type of attack since 2014. Worse, 475,000 children in the region will suffer from acute severe malnourishment in 2016, against 175,000 at the start of the year. In addition to the 2.6 million persons currently displaced, UNICEF fears that an additional 2.2 million (with half of this figure being children) might be trapped in areas controlled by Boko Haram and awaiting humanitarian assistance. “The crisis in the Lake Chad is a children crisis which should be at the top of the world agenda on migrations and displacements” Manuel Fontaine, Regional Director of UNICEF for Western and Central Africa, declared.

The United Nations Children’s Fund works with its partners to meet the basic needs of children and their families in areas affected by the crisis created by Boko Haram. Since the start of the year, close to 170,000 children were able to receive psychosocial support, 100,000 were treated against severe malnutrition and over 100,000 took part in educational programs. But the UN organisation complains of having received only 13% of the USD 308 million (approximately FCfa 177 billion) necessary to provide assistance to families affected by Boko Haram violence in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

S.A