By RFIPosted on 10-20-2019Modified on 20-10-2019 at 18:38
Nigerian police announced on Saturday (October 19th) that they had raided a religious school in northern Nigeria. 150 students were detained there, victims of abuse and degrading treatment on a daily basis. This new police operation - the fourth in a month - once again highlights the excesses of "Almajiri schools" in Nigeria, between religious institutions and brutal recovery centers.
In a matter of weeks, nearly 1,000 young people were released by the Nigerian police during interventions in religious schools in the north of the country.
At the end of September, 300 boys were found in the city of Kaduna . The youngest were still children. Their bodies bore the marks of abuse, such as torture of any kind and even sexual abuse.
In the days that followed, new raids helped 400 young men to be rescued at two other religious schools. Some residents were able to flee and give the alert.
This time, the police said on Saturday that they had released 150 more " students " in Kaduna district, including 22 women among them.
In Nigeria, 9 million students are enlisted in this type of private Islamic schools, called "Almajiri schools".
This is often the only alternative for the education of the poorest children, in a region marked by the decay of state structures. For some parents, it is also a way to place a difficult child, delinquent or addicted to drugs ...
The excesses are numerous and these institutions are sometimes transformed into real " houses of horror ".
Aware of the problem, the Nigerian presidency announced in June its desire to reform the Almajiri system. The proliferation of raids against these controversial schools could be a sign that the authorities have decided to take action.
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