Abuja: Boko Haram is teaching its child soldiers as young as 13, how to rape hostages, it has been revealed.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, the fighters allegedly told the child recruits that they would ‘have fun’ at the end of their conquests, in an apparent reference to the sexual exploitation of the hostages they would conquer after the attack.
Senior fighters spent two days teaching the children how to rape their hostages, and were told not to allow women to 'overpower' them.
The claims, made by a child soldier only identified as Ahmed, comes in the wake of the militant group issuing a video statement, claiming that they were not crushed and will fight on until an Islamic state was imposed in northern Nigeria.
One of the victims who escaped the clutches of the dreaded list, told the Daily Beast that she was raped by 'little boys' so little, that she could have fended them off in any other normal situation.
“One looked like a 13-year-old having sex for the first time. But he succeeded because he had a gun,” she reportedly said.
The group has reportedly turned to recruitment of child soldiers in an attempt to rebound after the terrible losses they suffered at the hands of the Nigerian military last year.
The Boko Haram fighters fleeing an attack on their base by the Nigerian military have also used hostage women and children, taken as hostage from Nigeria’s Chibok, as human shields, the report claimed.
The reports come in the wake of Boko Haram's elusive leader Abubakar Shekau appearing in a new video on Thursday to dispute a claim that the jihadist group had been routed from its Sambisa Forest stronghold.
"We are safe. We have not been flushed out of anywhere. And tactics and strategies cannot reveal our location except if Allah wills by his decree," Shekau said in the 25-minute video, flanked by masked armed fighters.
The government in Abuja and the military have frequently claimed victories against the Islamic State group affiliate but access to the epicentre of the conflict is strictly controlled.
That has made independent verification of official statements about victories virtually impossible.
Attacks have meanwhile continued, making claims of defeating Boko Haram questionable despite undoubted progress in pushing back the group.
The Boko Haram's insurgency has killed at least 20,000 and forced some 2.6 million others to flee their homes since 2009.
The violence has sparked a dire humanitarian crisis in the region, with thousands of children facing the risk of famine and starvation.
