Kano, Nigeria — Authorities in northern Nigeria's largest city have begun evacuating more than 5,000 street children seen as a “security threat” amid growing concern that the economic crisis is forcing them to fend for themselves more. Hisbah, the regional police tasked with enforcing Islamic Sharia law, has been carrying out midnight raids on car parks, markets and streets in the regional capital Kano since the beginning of the year, evacuating children while they sleep.
“So far we have wiped 300 of these boys off the streets and taken them to a camp designed for their rehabilitation,” Hisbah director general Aba Sufi told AFP. “Their continued life on the streets is a huge social and security threat because they are potential criminal recruits.”
“They are a ticking time bomb that needs to be defused urgently with tact and caution,” Sufi said.
In November, Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf set up a committee to rid the city of homeless children, most of whom are boys. Many sleep in the open and lack access to education and parental care.
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With the highest divorce rate in Nigeria, Kano is dealing with an increasing number of children from broken homes, according to official figures.
Largely left to their own devices, the boys wander the city begging, selling things at traffic lights, and scavenging for scrap metal to sell for money to feed themselves.
West Africa's economic hub is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with inflation soaring to 34.6 percent in November, leaving many struggling to eat.
According to a 2022 survey by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria has 18.5 million out-of-school children, with Kano State accounting for 1.9 million, the highest in the country.
Kano accounts for 39% of the total number of children living in the state, according to the Multidimensional Poverty in Nigeria 2022 study.
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Officials told AFP that many of the children in 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 them and determine where they came from.”
Some were sent from the villages to learn to read the Koran in unofficial Islamic religious schools called almajirs. 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 uphold the ancient almajira system have met with resistance from the traditional clergy.
Sufi said Hisbah police plan to provide “psychosocial” support and counseling to children before they enter the school for those who show interest in the school, adding that others will receive seed money to start a trade of their choice.
Daurava told AFP that the children who are outside the country will be repatriated after rehabilitation.
Previous attempts to rid the city of street children were unsuccessful.
Between 2017 and 2018, Hisba evacuated about 26,000 children and reunited them with their parents in Kano and beyond, but according to Daurawa, after a lull, they returned to the streets.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kano authorities closed almajiri schools and moved the students to their home states, but they returned when the schools reopened.
“We want to avoid a repeat of past experiences, so we have changed our approach by placing children in camps and rehabilitating them before sending them back into society,” Sufi said.