Islamic police in Nigeria round up children living on the streets to put them in camps ‘for their rehabilitation’

Kano, Nigeria – Authorities in northern Nigeria’s largest city have begun evacuating more than 5,000 street children seen as a “security threat” and growing concern as an economic crisis forces more to do for themselves. The Hisbah, a regional police force tasked with enforcing Islamic Sharia law, has carried out midnight raids on motor parks, markets and street corners in the regional capital, Kano, since the beginning of the year, evacuating the children while sleeping.

“We have so far removed 300 of these boys from the streets and brought them to a camp provided for their rehabilitation,” Hisbah director general Abba Sufi told AFP. “Their continued life on the streets is a major social and security threat because they are potential criminal recruits.”

“They are a time bomb that urgently needs to be diffused with tact and care,” said Sufi.

In November, the governor of Kano State, Abba Kabir Yusuf, established a committee to rid the city of street children, most of whom are boys. Many sleep outdoors and have no access to education or parental care.

With the highest divorce rate in Nigeria, according to official figures, Kano is faced with an increase in children from broken homes.

Largely left to fend for themselves, the boys wander the city, begging, selling items at traffic lights and scavenging for scrap metal to sell to get money to feed themselves.

The West African economic powerhouse is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with inflation rising to 34.6 percent in November, leaving many struggling to eat.

Nigeria has 18.5 million children out of school, with Kano State for 1.9 million, the highest rate in the country, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in a 2022 survey .

The Kano figure accounts for 39% of the total number of children living in the state, the Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Survey 2022 said.

Officials told AFP that many of the children in the city of Kano came from neighboring states.

“Some of them are from Kano, while others are from other states,” Hisbah commander Aminu Daurawa said. “The first step is to profile and identify where they come from.”

Some were sent from the villages to learn to read the Koran in informal Islamic religious schools called almajiri. Residents said that many students of Koranic schools beg for food and alms between classes.

Attempts by the authorities and local groups to intervene and support the secular almajiri system have faced opposition from traditional clerics.

Hisbah police plan to provide “psychosocial” support and counseling to children before enrolling those who show interest in school, Sufi said, adding that others will be given money to start a trade of their choice.

Daurawa told AFP that the children outside the state would be repatriated after their rehabilitation.

Previous attempts to rid the city of street children have failed.

Between 2017 and 2018, the Hisbah evacuated about 26,000 children and reunited them with their parents in Kano and outside Kano, but they returned to the streets after a lull, according to Daurawa.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the authorities in Kano closed almajiri schools and transported the students to their states, but they returned when the schools reopened.

“We want to avoid a repetition of the past experience, so we changed the approach by living the children and rehabilitating them before returning them to society,” said Sufi.