UNICEF faces allegations of 'supporting insurgents' in northeast Nigeria

The Nigerian military has suspended United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) activities in the northeast of Nigeria, it said in a statement on Friday, accusing its staff of training spies who support an Islamist insurgency there.

The northeast has been torn apart by a decade-long insurgency by Boko Haram and its splinter group Islamic State West Africa (ISWA), creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The Nigerian military said UNICEF staff "train and deploy spies who support the insurgents and their sympathisers."

A UNICEF spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.