180 child soldier handed over to UN by Nigerian military

Nigerian army says it has handed over 183 child "foot soldiers" freed from the Boko Haram terror group to a UN agency and the government. 

The children aged between seven and 18 years old were released to the Borno State government and UNICEF in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, which has borne the brunt of Boko Haram's decade-long insurgency. 

Army spokesman John Agim told CNN the children were being used as "foot soldiers" by the militants.
"Boko Haram militants send them for different kinds of operations, but they are under-aged. So, they need to be rehabilitated before they are released to their families," Agim said.

However, a UNICEF Nigeria spokeswoman said the group of eight girls and 175 boys were released after they were cleared of any affiliation with Boko Haram. 

Eva Hinds said the agency "views the children as children," and therefore they could not be classified as child soldiers or "being affiliated to violence without any judicial process. From our perspective, children are easily coerced into doing things to stay alive." 

"Their involvement is still an allegation," she added. 

The children are being rehabilitated and given psychological support, Hinds said. 

Around 8,700 children released from armed groups have been rehabilitated in the country since 2017, according to UN figures. 

Mohamed Fall, who heads UNICEF Nigeria, said their release from the military was "an important step on their long road to recovery."

"I also want to commend the action taken by the military and the authorities, it demonstrates a clear commitment to better protect children affected by the conflict," Fall said.

Last month, the army said it had rescued 148 hostages, most of them women and children, from Boko Haram militants.

Over 1,000 hostages were also freed in May by the military after a week-long battle with insurgents in northeast Nigeria.

Boko Haram has devastated vast swathes of northeast Nigeria over a ten-year period and has kidnapped more than 1,000 children in Nigeria since 2013, according to a recent report.
The group sparked global outrage after militants seized 276 girls from a boarding school in Chibok town, Borno in 2014. 

Some of the girls were freed last year following negotiations between the government and the militant group.

CNN

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British Nigerian jailed for trafficking women

A London-based nurse has been sentenced to 14 years in prison following a landmark prosecution which saw her convicted for trafficking Nigerian women to Europe and forcing them into sex work.

Josephine Iyamu, 51, was sentenced to 14 years in prison, 13 years for the slavery offences and 1 year for perverting the course of justice, to be served consecutively. She will serve at least half of that in prison, the rest on the licence.

Iyamu is the first British national to be convicted under the Modern Slavery Act for offences committed overseas, UK’s National Crime Agency said in a statement on its website.

In July 2017, The National Crime Agency’s (NCA) investigation into Iyamu began following information from the German Police who had identified one of her victims working in a brothel in Trier.

Investigations showed that she had positioned herself as a rich and powerful woman in Nigeria and had launched a political campaign through which she claimed she wanted to empower women and families.

Iyamu recruited vulnerable women from rural villages and promised them a better life in Europe but was arrested by NCA officers after landing at Heathrow airport on a flight from Lagos on 24 August 2017.

Whilst in prison, she made attempts to trace and intimidate the victims and their families together with bribing law enforcement officers into proving her innocence.

On 28 June 2018 at Birmingham Crown Court, she was found guilty of five counts of facilitating the travel of another person with a view to exploitation and one count of attempting to prevent the course of justice.

The NCA’s financial investigation into Iyamu’s illicit earnings and assets continues.

Speaking as he sentenced Iyamu, Judge Richard Bond described Iyamu’s victims as “naive and trusting women who only wanted to make theirs and their families lives better,” and said she had seen them as “commodities…to earn you money.” During their journey to Europe, he said they had been “exposed to a real and significant risk of death.”

Kay Mellor, operations manager at the NCA, said Iyamu specifically targeted vulnerable women and put them through the most horrific experience for her own financial gain.

“She thought living in a different country to were her crimes were committed would protect her. Working closely with our Nigerian and German colleagues however we were able to bring her to justice right here in the UK.

Mellor added that Iyamu’s expenditure on travel and properties far outweighed her legitimate earnings as a nurse and investigation into her finances is ongoing.

National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) Director-General, Dame Julie Okah-Donli said: “As part of our renewed determination to root out human trafficking from Nigeria, we have strengthened our networking and collaboration with the relevant sister law enforcement agencies around the world. This simply means that there no more a hiding place for any human trafficker around the world.”

He further commended the officers of NAPTIP and the partners in NCA for the heart-warming development.

Guardian