Boko Haram

====Increase in the number of child suicide bombings====
UNICEF reported an increase in the number of child suicide bombers with 27 incidents occurring in the first three months of 2017 in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, compared to 30 in the entire previous year, 56 in 2015 and 4 in 2014. Kidnapped children who escape from Boko Haram are often held in custody or ostracized by their communities or families. Patrick Rose, a UNICEF regional coordinator, stated: "They are held in military barracks, separated from their parents, without medical follow-up, without psychological support, without education, under conditions and for durations that are unknown". According to the NGO: "Society's rejection of these children, and their sense of isolation and desperation, could be making them more vulnerable to promises of martyrdom through acceptance of dangerous and deadly missions".<ref>{{cite news|title=Boko Haram Is Increasingly Using Children in Suicide Attacks|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/boko-haram-increasingly-using-children-suicide-attacks-n745456|access-date=2 June 2017|work=[[NBC News]]|agency=[[Reuters]]|date=12 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title='Alarming' rise in Boko Haram child suicide bombers|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/rise-boko-haram-child-suicide-bombers-170412041301650.html|access-date=2 June 2017|work=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]]|date=12 April 2017}}</ref>
In addition to child suicide bombers and despite having been routed from key areas and significantly downgraded in their capacities, throughout 2016 and into 2017, Boko Haram in Nigeria continued to wage attacks against Nigerian security forces, the community-based Civilian Joint Task Forces (CJTF), and regular citizens, using improvised explosives devices (IEDs) and other crude weaponry. These were often deployed with suicide bombers; an increasing number of whom were women and girls recruited to attack markets, transportation depots, mosques, and IDP camps.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://library.fundforpeace.org/fp303011602|title=Confronting the Unthinkable: Suicide Bombers in Northern Nigeria|access-date=13 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613134219/http://library.fundforpeace.org/fp303011602|archive-date=13 June 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>