UNICEF calls Nigeria to take decisive action to protect children

By Christopher Wells

In the past ten years, 180 children have been killed as a result of school attacks, while more than 1680 have been kidnapped.

A new report by UNICEF Nigeria also finds that some 60 school staff have been kidnapped and 14 killed, and more than 70 school attacks have occurred. 

The report was issued on the tenth anniversary of the abduction of 276 mostly Christian female students in Chibok, Borno State, by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. It comes in the wake of yet another abduction of school children in Kaduna state last month. While attacks and abductions are sometimes related to ideological or social conflicts, many are perpetrated by criminal gangs with purely economic motives, hoping to exchange hostages for hefty ransoms.

Education at risk due to threats to children’s safety

The Minimum Standards for Safe Schools in Nigeria: Monitoring report July-December 2023 “summarises the results of an assessment conducted to evaluate” the implementation of the government's Minimum Standards in some ten states in northern Nigeria. According to the report’s forward, “Nigeria’s achievements in advancing education, including increasing primary school attendance and gender parity, remain threatened by tangible risks to children’s safety.”

The report highlights protracted conflicts in the north-west, leading to continued attacks on schools and the killing and abduction of children and teachers; as well as tensions related to extreme weather events and natural disasters, which are aggravated by ongoing climate change.

As a result, UNICEF Nigeria notes that in 2020, around 11,500 schools were closed due to attacks, while in 2021 more than one million children were afraid of going back to school.

Urgent need for government to prioritize safety

While Nigeria has taken “commendable steps to institutionalize a commitment to school safety,” the UNICEF report laments failures to implement that commitment throughout the states evaluated. 

“I therefore call on the government to urgently prioritize further interventions and funding to scale up school safety efforts in every school across the country,” writes Cristian Munduate, UNICEF Representative Nigeria, while reiterating her organization’s commitment “to continuing to support the Federal Ministry of Education, state and local education authorities, communities and schools to realize safe, inclusive, quality education for every child.”