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Mainstream discussions on out-of-school boys in northern Nigeria often paint pictures of dirty and violent street-child-beggars that contributed to place Nigeria atop of nations that have the largest number of out-of-school children. This chapter explores how the failing system of traditional almajiri education, challenges associated with government efforts to integrate almajiri education into the formal school system, social exclusion and hostility contribute to increase the boys’ vulnerability to radicalisation and recruitment by Boko Haram. It recommends an equitable and non-discriminatory…
This article discusses the major population displacement that unfolded in Africa’s Lake Chad Basin. Local communities have offered shelter to 2.6 million people who were forced to leave their homes. This document discusses how the international community needs to act immediately to scale up humanitarian assistance in the Lake Chad Basin region.
Factors that have added to the complexity of the humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad region include ongoing violence and conflict since 2013, poverty, and climate change. Many children have been reported to be a part of the conflict to the…
Incidents of communal violence, rioting and civil conflict displace hundreds and thousands of Nigerians yearly, with children constituting over half of those affected by such emergencies. Children in populations hit by conflict may be exposed to physical violence, deprived of access to school and other basic services, and be vulnerable to spontaneous recruitment in armed gangs. Vulnerability to abuse and exploitation is increased when children become separated from their families as they flee to escape the violence.
Despite the problems faced by children in…
Children orphaned by Boko Haram Islamists are overcrowding the city of Maiduguri, Nigeria, whose population has doubled to over two million due to those seeking shelter from the conflict. With no care, services, or education, thousands of children are slipping through the cracks.
At a small primary school in north-east Nigeria, a group of uniformed orphans are greeting a visitor to their art class. Some are the children of Boko Haram fighters. Others are the offspring of their victims. This school is different. It consciously and publicly welcomes both the orphans of jihadists – and the children of civilians and soldiers killed by the jihadists. To create this progressive environment, all staff are required to enrol their own children as students, “in order to show your commitment to the school”. Many of the students still have living mothers…