Schools no longer safe for children in Northern Nigeria – Amnesty Int’l Decries

Amnesty International has condemned Nigerian authorities for failing to protect children in northern states after more than 230 students were abducted this week in Kebbi and Niger.

The organisation said the incidents highlight the government’s inability to prevent repeated attacks on schools, which have already forced hundreds of institutions to close and disrupted the education of thousands of children in states such as Katsina and Plateau.

“The Nigerian authorities are failing children,” said Isa Sanusi, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria. “School children in some parts of northern Nigeria are constantly at risk of death or abduction.”

Sanusi noted that over 780 children were kidnapped from schools and religious centres in 2021, with some killed during the raids. He stressed that the ongoing abductions show that authorities “never cared to learn any lessons from previous incidents.”

Amnesty International added that teachers in Zamfara, Katsina, and Niger have reported a sharp decline in school attendance since 2021, as many children are too afraid to return. The organisation also noted that many young girls are being withdrawn from school and married off due to fears of abduction.

“The future of thousands of school children in northern Nigeria remains bleak, as hundreds of schools have been closed indefinitely due to rising insecurity,” Sanusi said. “Hundreds of children may entirely abandon education due to the psychological trauma of witnessing violent attacks or living in captivity.”

Amnesty warned that attacks on educational institutions have “major and far-reaching” consequences and stressed that Nigeria has an international obligation to protect children from killings, intimidation, and abductions.

“There is a deliberate attack on children by armed groups. Using children as shields or bargaining chips is unacceptable and must stop,” Sanusi said, urging the government to treat the attacks as possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“No child should go through what children are experiencing now in northern Nigeria. Education should not be a matter of life and death for anyone. Nigeria is failing children once again in a horrifying manner,” he added.

The organisation called on the government to strengthen security around schools and ensure all perpetrators are arrested and prosecuted through fair trials.