The United Nations is concerned about the abduction of children.

According to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, boys and girls are becoming targets of attacks by IS and Boko Haram.

A United Nations envoy warned on March 25 that child abductions carried out by extremist groups such as Boko Haram or the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) are on the rise.

Speaking before the 15 members of the Security Council, the UN Secretary-General's special envoy for children and armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui, urged the council to impose sanctions on armed groups and strengthen measures to protect children in conflict zones.

African boys and girls are becoming targets of Boko Haram attacks (photo: Reuters)

The warning was issued by special envoy Zerrougui after reports indicated that hundreds of children in the town of Damasak, Nigeria, were being held captive by Boko Haram militants. However, Nigerian authorities have denied the report.

Previously, IS militants were also accused of kidnapping women and girls in Iraq, even selling them into sexual slavery.

France's ambassador to the United Nations, Francois Delattre, who holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council in March, proposed increasing sanctions by adding the kidnappers to the UN's blacklist for human rights violations.

According to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, boys and girls are becoming targets of attacks by IS and Boko Haram, and therefore UN agencies will face even more abduction cases in the future.

According to UNICEF statistics, 2014 was considered a disastrous year for children, with 15 million children affected by conflicts in the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, Palestine, Syria, and Ukraine.

According to vov.vn