This city is plastered with the faces of alleged 
 
 high-level Boko Haram fighters, collages of photos on banners slung across walls and fences and storefronts. Some of the militants are carrying rifles. Others are wearing military fatigues. 
 
 “Wanted Boko Haram Suspects by Nigerian Army,” the banners read. 
 
 The pictures of the alleged militants are small. You have to get close to register one of the banners’ most jarring features: 
 
 A number of those top-tier suspects are actually boys. Some look no older than 14. They smile at the camera or wave scrawny arms at the photographer. They wear ski caps too big for their heads. 
 
 How did a bunch of teenagers become the most wanted people in Africa’s most populous country? 
 
 Beginning in 2011, Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist group, swept through an enormous stretch of Nigeria and into neighboring Cameroon and Chad, growing larger and more destructive. This was a group that delivered nothing to its new subjects other than rape and murder. Yet each year its campaign expanded wider and wider, mystifying foreign officials and aid workers, who asked: Who are these men? 
 
 The kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, Nigeria is the most infamous of Boko Haram's atrocities. But the militant Islamists's reign of terror has had a devastating affect on more than a million of the the region’s children. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post) 
 
 It was that question that the Nigerian army sought to answer when it designed the wanted posters. In the center it put Abubakar Shekau, the erratic, bearded leader who screeched threats in Arabic on the group’s videos. But beyond Shekau, officers believed, some of Boko Haram’s most dangerous members were barely adolescents. The army didn’t hesitate to add the boys’ photos to the banner — they were wanted, too. 
 
 “In banditry, age is not an issue,” said Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor, the top military official in northeastern Nigeria, defending the use of the boys’ photos. 
 
 [Boko Haram is forcing more children to carry out suicide bombings] 
 
 Thursday is the second anniversary of one of Boko Haram’s most notorious crimes, the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok. The kidnapping generated international outrage, with millions of people — including first lady Michelle Obama — tweeting the phrase #bringbackourgirls. But the schoolgirls, most of whom are still missing, are hardly the only casualties of Boko Haram. 
 
 Since 2014, a fifth of all Boko Haram suicide bombers have been children, according to a report from UNICEF released this week. And Nigerian officials say that’s not the only threat children pose. 
 
 “They can lead. They can fight. They can cause all kinds of damage,” said a senior Nigerian military officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Boko Haram has suffered major defeats over the past year and has lost much of the territory it controlled. But the group is still a threat, carrying out frequent terror attacks. 
 
 Still, putting a boy’s face on a wanted poster seems to some an inappropriate move, particularly as the military has made clear that top Boko Haram suspects are wanted dead or alive. And according to experts, many of the boys have been brainwashed or otherwise coerced into fighting. 
 
 “When the photos of 
 
 these boys are displayed, it perpetuates the fear around these children. Because they are under 18, we consider them victims,” said Rachel Harvey, UNICEF’s head of child protection in Nigeria. 
 
 [They were freed from Boko Haram’s rape camps. But their nightmare wasn’t over] 
 
 In its report, UNICEF claimed that many of the boys who are considered Boko Haram fighters are actually acting under enormous pressure. 
 
 “Boys are forced to attack their own families to demonstrate their loyalty to Boko Haram,” the report said. For the children, the alternative is often death. 
 
 Other researchers have found that some boys initially joined Boko Haram because the group claimed to espouse Islamic values in a mixed Christian-Muslim country where Muslims have often complained of discrimination. In some cases, Boko Haram militants offered boys cash loans for joining. 
 
 But as the movement’s ultra-violent modus operandi became clearer, the reasons for enlistment changed. For many boys, not joining meant that their homes and family businesses would be destroyed — and that they would quickly become targets. 
 
 “Because I needed an identity to remain safe, I decided to pledge my allegiance to them,” one young former member told a researcher for the international aid group Mercy Corps. “At that time I needed protection and immunity from persecution by them so I could continue with my business.” 
 
 Sub-Saharan Africa offers plenty of examples of the boy-commander. During Liberia’s civil wars in the 1990s and 2000s, prepubescent boys were put in charge of units of even younger children and often were sent directly to the front lines. 
 
 “As a commander, I was in charge of nine others, four girls and five boys. We were used mostly for guarding checkpoints but also fighting. I shot my gun many times,” a Liberian boy named Patrick told Human Rights Watch in 2004. He was 12 when he fought in the war. 
 
 In Mozambique, during the conflict that raged there from 1977 to 1992, more than 25 percent of fighters were believed to be younger than 18. And in South Sudan today, hundreds of children fight on behalf of the government and the rebels. 
 
 With their wanted posters, Ni­ger­ian officials seem to have made it clear that many of the boys aren’t just foot soldiers. They are more serious threats. And authorities do not appear swayed by the idea that the young men may be victims themselves. 
 
 “These are ruthless individuals,” Irabor said. “Terrorists.” 
 
 Read more 
 
 I’ve seen the Taliban’s brutality. Boko Haram might be worse. 
 
 The brutal toll of Boko Haram’s attacks on civilians 
 
 Children rescued from Boko Haram are so traumatized they forgot their names. 
 
 Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world ||||| They’re called “suicide” bombers, but the children sent by Nigerian terror group Boko Haram to detonate bombs and kill people are not given a choice. They are mostly girls, some as young as 8. 
 
 Boko Haram’s cruelty to children — its killings, abductions, coerced marriages, slavery and forced “suicide” bombings — plumbs a horrifying low that other Islamist extremists have yet to reach. 
 
 The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, shocked the world with his grim smile as he announced that 276 schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, in Nigeria's Borno state, in April 2014 would be sold into slavery. 
 
 NEWSLETTER: Get the day's top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> 
 
 Since then the group has ramped up the use of children as bombers, according to a report Tuesday by UNICEF called “Beyond Chibok.” 
 
 Last year, 44 children were sent by Boko Haram to detonate bombs in crowded places such as mosques, markets and a displaced persons camp, up from four the year before. Three quarters of them were girls. 
 
 “The use of children, especially girls, as suicide bombers has become one of the defining and alarming features of the conflict,” the report said. 
 
 Between January 2014 and February 2016, there were 40 “suicide” attacks involving one more children, 21 of them in Cameroon, 17 in Nigeria and two in Chad, according to the report. 
 
 Women and girls in the regions wear long loose gowns, making it easy to conceal explosives. 
 
 In January, two female bombers hit a mosque in Kolofata, northern Cameroon, killing at least 10. A few days later a boy detonated a bomb at a mosque in Nguetchewe village in Cameroon, killing four. In March, 22 people died in Nigeria after two female bombers detonated devices. 
 
 In February, 58 people were killed in Dikwa, Nigeria, when two females detonated bombs. A third member of the bombing mission decided not to set off her explosives, because she spotted her family in the camp, according to Nigerian media citing authorities. 
 
 Boko Haram is fighting to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria and last year pledged allegiance to the Islamic State extremist group. In recent months, military forces from Nigeria and neighboring countries have freed thousands of people, including women and girls who had been abducted and forced to become sexual slaves. 
 
 Doune Porter, UNICEF spokeswoman in Nigeria, last week met girls in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria's Borno state, who had been imprisoned by Boko Haram, many of them traumatized by repeated rapes and abuse. 
 
 Some had seen their friends forced by Boko Haram to carry out bombings. 
 
 Porter said the bombings couldn’t be called suicide attacks because the children were either forced to carry them out or were not of an age to understand the consequences of their actions. Some may have been misled or brainwashed by adults. 
 
 “I met one girl who told me two of her friends were forced to carry out bombings. She said they didn’t want to do it. They were forced to do it. 
 
 “One of them told me that girls who had refused to ‘marry’ Boko Haram soldiers had been forced to act as so-called ‘suicide’ bombers,” Porter said. “They were all girls who were captured by Boko Haram when it took over their villages. 
 
 “Now, many of them are facing fear from their communities. That’s one of the terrible, tragic effects of using children to carry out bombings. When they return to their communities, they very often face stigmatization and isolation because they’re seen as being tainted by Boko Haram.” 
 
 The report warned that abducted girls faced the risk of being rejected and even killed by suspicious communities. 
 
 Many of the girls and women forced into marriage with Boko Haram fighters are in displaced persons camps in Maiduguri. Some told Porter their parents had been killed in Boko Haram attacks. Others didn’t know where their parents were. But some had found their parents and been accepted by them. 
 
 “They’re all very traumatized," Porter said. "They have gone through the most awful beatings and rapes. Some of them have been raped by many different people, some by just one man. Some of them are pregnant or have had children. 
 
 “One girl told me she was held in a house and there were 20 girls and women ranging from 12 years old to middle-aged women. And Boko Haram soldiers would just come and rape them.” 
 
 One 17-year-old from Cameroon was visiting her mother in a Nigerian village when Boko Haram attacked, abducted her, locked her in a house and forced her to “marry” a fighter, according to the report. She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy while in captivity. 
 
 When she was freed and arrived in a displaced person’s camp, she faced suspicion and hostility. 
 
 “When I arrived at the camp, I didn’t have anything,” she told UNICEF researchers. “I had to borrow from people. Some women would beat me, they would chase me away. They said, ‘you are a Boko Haram wife, don’t come near us!’ 
 
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 “If I used their washing basin to clean, they would say, ‘You are Boko Haram wife, don’t touch our basin’. Everywhere I went, they would abuse me and call me a Boko Haram wife. I felt as if I was neglected; I did not have anybody to help or support me. 
 
 “When I feel sadness in my heart, sometimes I cry and wipe my tears away.” 
 
 About 2.3 million people, including 1.3 million children, have been displaced by the crisis, according to UNICEF. More than 670,000 children are not able to go to school because of the conflict. 
 
 Boko Haram attacks prevented farmers from planting crops, herders from keeping cattle and fisherman from going to fish in Lake Chad. UNICEF last year assisted 93,000 in the region with severe chronic malnutrition. 
 
 Follow @RobynDixon_LAT for news from Africa. 
 
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– Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group terrorizing Nigeria and surrounding countries, is drastically increasing its use of children as suicide bombers, according to a UNICEF report released Tuesday. The Los Angeles Times reports Boko Haram used four children as suicide bombers in 2014. Last year, they used 44—33 of them girls, whose loose dresses make it easier to conceal bombs. These children, some as young as 8, have killed scores of people in populated areas around Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. The UNICEF report, Beyond Chibok, is named after an incident that happened two years ago in Chibok, Nigeria, when 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, according to the Washington Post. Most of them are still missing. Since then, 20% of all Boko Haram suicide bombers have been children. But UNICEF spokesperson Doune Porter says "suicide bomber" is a harmful and inaccurate term when it comes to the children used by Boko Haram. “They’re all very traumatized," Porter tells the Times. "They have gone through the most awful beatings and rapes. Some of them have been raped by many different people." She says the children used as bombers are either forced to do it, brainwashed, or are simply too young to understand the consequences. Girls are captured when Boko Haram takes over their villages and forced into sexual slavery. Porter says if they refuse to marry their captors, they are forced to become bombers. All told, the war being waged by Boko Haram has displaced 1.3 million children since 2013. And yet UNICEF's report finds the world has largely ignored their plight.