Kano, Nigeria – Authorities in northern Nigeria's largest city have begun evacuating more than 5,000 street children seen as a “security threat” and a growing concern as an economic crisis forces more to look out 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. , vacuuming children while they sleep.
“So far we have moved 300 of these boys from the streets and brought them into a camp prepared for their rehabilitation,” Hisbah director general Abba Sufi told AFP. continuously on the streets is a serious social and security threat because they are capable of committing crimes.”
“They are a ticking time bomb that urgently needs to be defused with tact and care,” said Sufi.
In November, Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf established a committee to eradicate street children, most of them boys. Many sleep outside and have no access to education or parental care.
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With the highest divorce rate in Nigeria, according to official figures, Kano is dealing with an increase in children from broken homes.
Largely left to fend for themselves, the boys roam the town, begging, selling items at traffic lights and scrap metal to sell to make money. get to feed themselves.
The West African economic powerhouse is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with inflation soaring to 34.6 percent in November, leaving many struggling to eat.
Nigeria has 18.5 million out-of-school children, with Kano State accounting for 1.9 million, the highest in the country, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in a 2022 study.
Kano's figure accounts for 39% of the total number of children living in the state, the 2022 Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Survey said.
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Officials told AFP that many of the children in Kano city came from neighboring states.
“Some of them are from Kano, while others are from other states,” said Hisbah leader Aminu Daurawa. “The first step is to report them and identify where they came from.”
Some were sent from small villages to learn how to read the Koran at informal Islamic religious schools called almajiri. Residents said that many students of the Koranic schools ask for food and alms between classes.
Attempts by local authorities and organizations to intervene and support the age-old almajiri system have met with resistance from traditional clergy.
Hisbah police plan to provide the children with “psychosocial” support and counseling before enrolling those interested in the school, Sufi said, adding that others will be given seed money to start a business of their choice.
Daurawa told AFP that children outside the state will be brought back after rehabilitation.
Previous attempts to clean up street children have failed.
Between 2017 and 2018, the Hisbah evacuated about 26,000 children and brought them back with their parents inside and outside Kano, but they returned to the streets after a lull, according to Daurawa .
During the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities in Kano closed almajiri schools and transported the pupils to their states, but they returned when the schools reopened.
“We want to avoid a repetition of the past experience, which is why we changed our approach by camping the children and rehabilitating them before sending them back to society them,” said Sufi.
