The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday said there has been an increase in the number of women and children being used to conduct suicide attacks in northeast Nigeria.

UNICEF child protection specialist Laurent Dutordoir said, "There has been a sharp increase of these cases since the beginning of 2015 as armed groups have shifted back to opportunistic attacks to recapture lost territories."

According to reports, 26 suicide attacks were carried out in 2014, compared to 27 carried out between January and May this year.

Both women and children were used to detonate bombs or explosive belts in 75 percent of these incidents, mostly targeting crowded and populated areas such as bus stations and markets.

Since the first case was reported in July 2014, nine attacks carried out by girls between the ages of seven and 17 have been documented.

"Culturally, there is more of an issue when checking women and girls, so this is unfortunately an efficient tactic that is being used," Dutordoir stated.

This worrying trend is compounded by the fact that these are not necessarily abducted children who are partaking in these attacks, as children who have been displaced or separated from their families have also been targeted by warring factions, according to UNICEF.

Figures indicate that there could be as many as 10,000 of these children, as an estimated 743,000 children are thought to have been uprooted by the conflict in Nigeria's three most affected states. Endit

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