Facts

• A Reuters report published on Tuesday, based on eyewitness accounts, claims that the Nigerian military deliberately massacred children in its fight against the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram in the country's northeast.^[1]
• Citing more than 40 soldiers and civilians, Reuters found that 60 children had allegedly been killed in six specific incidents, with the last occurring in February 2021. The witnesses' collective accounts add up to thousands of children allegedly killed, though Reuters was unable to independently verify all the estimates.^[1]
• Soldiers and other security forces reportedly said they had been instructed by army commanders to "delete" children believed to have collaborated with Boko Haram or other Islamist groups, or whose fathers had been members of insurgent groups. In the past 13 years, at least 300K people are said to have been killed in the Nigerian army's fight against Islamist militants.^[2]
• The latest Reuters report comes less than a week after the news agency published a report alleging that the Nigerian army was also running a systematic and illegal abortion program as part of its fight against Boko Haram. An estimated 10K pregnancies are said to have been terminated, often without the women's consent.^[3]
• The Nigerian government and military reject the allegations of targeted child-killing and the existence of a "secret, systematic and illegal abortion program."^[4]
• Meanwhile, Washington said Tuesday that it was "deeply troubled" by the latest Reuters investigation, and had raised the allegations with the Nigerian government. According to the US State Department, "decisions about next steps" will be made based on a review of the report.^[5]