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Nigeria: 10 Years after Chibok, Schoolchildren Still at Risk – HRW
Nigeria: 10 Years after Chibok, Schoolchildren Still at Risk – HRW
…Urges Government To Implement Safe Schools Plan to Protect Schools, Children
By: Our Reporter
Ten years after the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigerian authorities have failed to put in place and sustain crucial measures to provide a secure learning environment for every child, Human Rights Watch said today.
Since 2014, according to Save the Children, more than 1,600 children have been abducted or kidnapped across northern Nigeria. In the northeast, the armed conflict between Boko Haram and Nigerian armed forces continues to take its toll and, in the northwest, criminal groups commonly called bandits are terrorizing communities. During February and March 2024 alone, bandits kidnapped over 200 children from their schools in Kaduna and Sokoto states.
“For many children across northern Nigeria, the pursuit of an education means facing the constant threat of abduction or kidnapping,” said Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Children should never face the harrowing dilemma of sacrificing their safety for education, but this untenable choice, which echoes the profound insecurity plaguing the country, is thrust upon them daily.”
On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram, an Islamist armed group, abducted 276 girls from their school in Chibok, a town in northeastern Borno state, sparking global outrage. Although some of the girls escaped, or were released or rescued, 96 remain in captivity according to UNICEF, and civil society groups continue to pressure the government to ensure they are rescued. Boko Haram, known for its opposition to education, has carried out other such abductions, including one of 110 girls from a school in Dapchi, a town in Yobe state, in 2018.
In addition to kidnappings by Boko Haram in the northeast, the ongoing banditry crisis in the northwest has in recent years made that area a hub for criminal kidnapping for ransom. The crisis emerged after years of conflict between herders and farmers, giving rise to the criminal groups, which have carried out widespread killings, looting, extortion, and kidnapping for ransom in mostly rural communities.
Between December 2020 and February 2021, a series of high-profile incidents, including the abduction of over 600 schoolchildren across Zamfara, Katsina, and Niger states, thrust the kidnapping issue into the spotlight.
In the aftermath of Chibok, the Nigerian government endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, an international political commitment to protect education from attack and schools from military use which turns them into targets. The government also adopted a Safe School Initiative for Nigeria with the support of the global community and Nigerian business leaders. The initiative aimed to raise funds with an initial US$10 million pledge to help make schools safer, including by moving them to safer areas and creating a safe school model for schools across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe, the three states worst hit by the Boko Haram insurgency.
However, the multi-stakeholder initiative faced problems, and there has been a decline in momentum over the years with little or no progress made in fortifying schools, Human Rights Watch said. In 2021, Nigeria’s then-Senate president Ahmad Lawan, following an investigation into the utilization of the funds for the initiative, declared that it was designed to fail without a National Policy and Strategy for the Safe School Initiative and the leadership of the Federal Education Ministry. In the meantime, communities continue to suffer the brunt of bandit attacks and schoolchildren remain vulnerable prey.
A Chibok girl who was in Boko Haram captivity for over two years, and was released with 20 others, told Human Rights Watch that news of school kidnappings brings back memories of her ordeal. “Whenever I hear that more children have been kidnapped, I feel terrible, helpless,” she said. “We are still not safe … It brings back memories of what happened to me. I can never forget being snatched from my parents, my family for so long. I pray this is not the case for those that are kidnapped.” She is now a 28-year-old university student studying natural and environmental sciences.
Kemi Okenyodo, an expert in security and governance and the executive director of the Rule of Law and Empowerment Initiative in Abuja, told Human Rights Watch that the ongoing school kidnappings, resembling those in Chibok a decade ago, highlight a failure to learn from past experiences, as they are taking place without adequate security infrastructure or intervention from authorities to prevent dozens or hundreds of children being snatched away at once.
Amid the heightened threat of attacks on schools, many have been forced to shut down completely, with more than 20 million children out of school in Nigeria, according to UNESCO, among the highest number in any country in the world. According to UNICEF, 66 percent of out-of-school children in Nigeria are from the northeast and northwest, which are among the poorest regions in the country.
For girls especially, the challenges are double edged. They risk rape and other forms of sexual violence if kidnapped, and if kept out of school, they risk child marriage, which is a common practice in these regions.
In 2021, the government adopted the National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence Free Schools aimed at improving school security, strengthening the capabilities of security agents to respond to threats, and ensuring that education continues for children displaced by conflict and crisis, among other reasons.
The authorities committed to investing 144.8 billion naira (about $314.5 million at the time) over a certain period to finance this initiative. In 2023, they announced that 15 billion naira (about $24 million at the time) had been earmarked to pilot the initiative in 18 high-risk states and 48 schools. However, details of the implementation are sparse, and it remains unclear the extent to which this has been done.
Okenyodo told Human Rights Watch that the government needs to involve communities in designing and implementing initiatives to make schools safer to create a sense of ownership and reduce inefficiency and corruption.
“Now more than ever, the Nigerian authorities should step up efforts to make learning safe for children,” Ewang said. “They should work with communities to adopt rights-respecting measures and put in place adequate financing, systems, and structures to ensure quick, effective, and transparent implementation to ensure that children can learn without being exposed to grave harm.”
Nigeria: 10 Years after Chibok, Schoolchildren Still at Risk – HRW
Former CP David Danjuma Auta dies at Air Force Military Hospital, Jos
By: Zagazola Makama
A retired Commissioner of Police, CP David Danjuma Auta (Rtd), JP, KSM, KSS, has died.
He passed away on Feb. 19, 2026, at the Air Force Military Hospital, Jos, after a brief illness.
Born on June 11, 1941, CP Auta enlisted in the Nigeria Police Force on Feb. 26, 1962, and served in several capacities, culminating as Commissioner of Police in Ogun State before retiring on Feb. 26, 1997.
He hailed from Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State.
He is survived by his wife and seven children. The corpse has been deposited at the hospital morgue, and burial arrangements will be communicated in due course.
Former CP David Danjuma Auta dies at Air Force Military Hospital, Jos
Five killed, house burnt in cross-border communal attack in Benue
By: Zagazola Makama
Five persons have been killed and a house razed following a late-night attack on Azoke village in Ado Local Government Area of Benue.
Sources said the incident occurred at about 9:00 p.m. on Feb. 19 when suspected assailants from Akparata community in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi allegedly invaded the village.
The victims were identified as Nwefuru Elu, Nwefuru Agnes, Nwali Nworie Christianana, Obasi Nwode and Nwozo Nwode.
It was gathered that the attackers also set ablaze a house belonging to one Elumu Nwokwo during the assault, heightening tension in the area.
Security personnel who responded to a distress alert visited the scene and documented evidence as part of preliminary investigation.
Authorities said efforts were ongoing to apprehend those responsible, while further investigation had commenced to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Residents were urged to remain calm and cooperate with security agencies as measures were being intensified to prevent escalation of violence in the area.
Five killed, house burnt in cross-border communal attack in Benue
New Residential layouts will not distort master plan of greater Maiduguri…..Bababe
By:Bodunrin Kayode
The Executive Secretary (ES) Borno Geographic Information Service (BOGIS) Eng Adam Bababe has said that the new residential layouts being created by his agency will not distort the foundations of the existing master plan of the city.
Bababe said that the phased layout which is being built along the new Maiduguri ring road would naturally fall in line with the letters and spirit of the master plan which he said is currently in the online market being purchased by interested residents of Borno.
The ES agreed that full update of the master plan is long overdue adding that a gradual process is however on the way to ensure that residents enjoy the fruit of the reviewed master plan that would satisfy every resident.
Eng Bababe said this during a recent news conference in which he unveiled a digitalized method for the application of land by residents of the state who desire to own their own land for the building of new homes to reduce the current deficit which came about by the lingering insurgency.
Bababe revealed that the Borno government has spent over 1.68 billion naira compensating 732 original farm owners along the newly computerized plots that are now being allocated on phase one of the new allocated plots.
The ES further hinted that about eleven families refused the cash compensation because they felt the money the government was offering them for the land taken for the layout purpose was inadequate compared to the real value of land they possessed from their ancestors.
They rather opted for alternative amount of land acres in another area to continue with their original type of farming pastime before the government decided to create the layouts to deal with accommodation deficits in greater Maiduguri.
Eng Bababe also hinted that 16.5km of phase one of the proposed layout plan was well planned with effective arterial road connections linked to the old designs thereby making the road networks to be very effective in tandem with the original master plan of Maiduguri.
He maintained that his engineers have prepared five phases of the layout which is meant to be sold to the public but for now they are dealing mostly with the phase one which will stretch from now till November 2026.
“When you consider the fact that the original master plan of Maiduguri was first proposed and presented in 1976 and the fact that it was supposed to be reviewed in 1981 but it did not get its first review so you can imagine the chaotic situation we met on ground which I have been trying to fix since I assumed duty here.
“As a result, you can see that it is going to be very difficult to enforce 100% the original letters of the plan on ground because it is quite a long time reviews have not taken place in the State capital. But I assure you that we will soon get a comprehensive and workable one ready that would take into cognizance most of our challenges as a developing capital.” Said Bababe.
The ES however regretted that if the government decides to stick to all the letters of the original master plan in the creation of a greater Maiduguri, there would be heavy collision with many interest secular and religious and that would not be very good for the government in power.
On their step by step treatment of past mistakes, the ES said that over 1000 homes were given notice to leave certain areas before the 2024 flood in the capital but only few of them responded to the notice.
A large chunk of them refused to leave until the flood actually covered and almost took some of them along before they realized that it was the reality and they had to move on their own.
On the mistake of approving petrol filling stations in residential areas
Bababe noted that it is on this same premise that his agency when it came on board refused to allocate new filling stations to petrol dealers who built stations any where they wish without the approval of town planning authorities.
In response to this reporters questions, he said he does not envisage any legal challenge in court by residents who may so despise filing stations in their vicinity because of the obvious hazards they pose to their right to life.
The BOGIS boss posited that the drafters of the new constitution have been very careful not to indulge in such flagrant approvals that would endanger residents in the entire phase one to five in the new master plan.
“. For clarity, i can assure you that we stopped the approvals of any new filling stations in the state since 2021 so there is nothing new now in this new allocations.
“Any filling station you see now that looks new were renovated out of older once sold out to the new buyers. New ones are yet to get any form of approvals from this office.
“And for the records out of 211 filling stations inside the books only 78 are completed and out of that only eleven of them are actually functional you can check them out” Said Bababe.
The ES went further to reiterate that the town planning authorities have equally been approving filling stations so any new one seen are actually being controlled by town planning authorities who decide where to fix them accordingly.
The ES maintained that there must be at least 200 metres from one filling station to another and they are doing their best to adhere to it.
Meanwhile the sales of the lands in the phase one to medium, low and high classification purchasers are still ongoing because all payments and collections of documents and deeds will be done online as expected.
A demonstration was made on the spot in the BOGIS compound where a prospective buyer got his approval immediately.
New Residential layouts will not distort master plan of greater Maiduguri…..Bababe
Police arrest officer previously at large over missing firearms in Riyom Division in Plateau
Former CP David Danjuma Auta dies at Air Force Military Hospital, Jos
Five killed, house burnt in cross-border communal attack in Benue
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