Nigeria has been named among the five countries with the highest number of children recruited into armed groups, as the United Nations warns that the global crisis of children in conflict is worsening at an alarming rate.

The UN website noted on Thursday that this was revealed in an exclusive interview with UN News ahead of the International Day Against the Use of Child Soldiers.

Vanessa Frazier, United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said the recruitment and use of minors remained one of the gravest and most widespread violations recorded around the world.

“The recruitment and use of children remains one of the most widespread and devastating violations we face. In 2024 alone, more than 7,400 children were recruited or used by armed forces and armed groups. These are just the confirmed cases,” she said.

According to the United Nations, the highest levels of violations are currently recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria and Myanmar. A new pattern is raising alarm in Sudan, where children are reportedly being targeted for a variety of roles, from border guards to active-duty combatants.

Frazier emphasized that behind the statistics is a shattered childhood.

“Each number in our report represents a child whose purity has been interrupted,” she says.

Over the past 30 years, the United Nations mission on children and armed conflict has facilitated the separation of more than 220,000 children from armed groups. The Office of the Special Representative negotiates directly with combatants for the release of minors, an unusual tool for engagements in combat zones.

Once released, UNICEF and partners will lead reintegration efforts, providing psychosocial care, access to education, and community support. However, reintegration is often complicated by stigma.

“Girls who return, especially those who return with children, may be ostracized by their communities,” Frazier said, pointing to the complex trauma faced by female survivors.

Thousands of children have been affected by rebel violence in Nigeria over the past decade, with abductions and forced removals by armed groups leaving long-lasting scars on families and communities, particularly in the country’s northeast.

Frazier described the human toll in stark terms, based on field visits that included meetings with Boko Haram abductees.

“Hearing about a 13-year-old girl holding a baby shows how conflict deeply robs children of their childhoods,” she says. “The numbers in our report are individuals, children who should have had a whole future ahead of them.”

Global response efforts

The UN envoy stressed that prevention must be at the center of global response efforts.

“Prevention is better than cure. Even during war, children must stay in school. If they are not in school, they are more likely to be drafted into the military, whether forced or not,” she said.

She also emphasized the importance of accountability, citing prosecutions in domestic courts and at least three cases at the International Criminal Court involving child recruitment.

“One of the greatest deterrents is justice and accountability,” she said. “The prosecution and sentencing of the armed group’s leaders sends a strong message that this crime has real consequences.”

Frazier, who previously served as Malta’s ambassador to the United Nations and a member of the Security Council, described children as “symbols of innocence” and warned that lasting peace could not be achieved if young people were left behind.

“The sustainability of peace depends on the right of children to advance peace,” she said. “Those returning from conflict must be given the opportunity to get an education and aspire to become doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers. That can only be achieved through education.”

Through her campaign, prove it’s importantchildren affected by war send handwritten messages to world leaders folded into origami doves, a symbol of peace. According to her recollection, one message read: “I still have hope for a peaceful world. Never again will a girl become the wife of a guerrilla fighter. Never again will she join an armed group. Let’s also save her childhood and her family.”

For Frazier, that plea captures the stakes.

“Children should never be treated as collateral damage to war,” she said. “Protecting them is not optional; it is the basis of a sustainable and peaceful future.”