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| Children play at the LEA Primary and Secondary School Kuriga two days after 287 students were kidnapped, Kuriga, Kaduna State, Nigeria, March 9, 2024. © 2024 Sunday Alamba/AP Photo |
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Armed Groups Kidnap Hundreds Across Northern NigeriaSince late February, various armed groups in Nigeria, including Islamist insurgents Boko Haram, have kidnapped hundreds of people, including nearly 300 schoolchildren. The Abductions On February 29, suspected Boko Haram fighters abducted over 200 internally displaced people (IDP), many of them children, who had ventured outside the relatively safe confines of IDP camps in Borno state to collect firewood. Then, on March 7, criminal gangs kidnapped 287 students, including many girls, from a school in Kaduna State. Two days later, bandits broke into a boarding school and kidnapped 15 children as they slept. Earlier this week, more than 87 additional people were reported to have been kidnapped in one community in Kaduna State. Ongoing Fear These abductions are the latest indication of Nigeria’s spiraling security crisis, as communities face severe threats from Boko Haram in the country’s northeast and other criminal “bandit” groups in the northwest. |
| WATCH: This 2016 video from our archives explains the history of Boko Haram’s attacks on schools in Nigeria |
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Mass kidnappings by insurgents and other criminal groups have been a problem across the country’s northern regions since Boko Haram infamously abducted 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014. These kinds of attacks have destroyed many schools and forced more to close, keeping hundreds of children from their education. Government security forces have said they are working to release the victims kidnapped over the last month, but first must overcome challenges reaching remote forest areas where the groups are holding those kidnapped captive. Along with freeing those kidnapped, HRW Africa researcher Anietie Ewang says the government needs to prevent further abductions, particularly of students. Read More |
| UN member countries should abandon a preposterous arrangement to elect Saudi Arabia as chair of the UN’s top forum for women’s rights and gender equality, despite the country’s egregious women’s rights record. Read More |
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| A ruling this week allows Texas police to arrest and deport people that officials claim have entered the US illegally, giving state authorities the power to put people fearing persecution into immediate danger. Read More |
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| A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has convicted prominent journalist Stanis Bujakera and sentenced him to six months in prison for sharing an article on social media. Read More |
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| © 2024 Human Rights Watch |
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All 10 Canadian Provinces to End Immigration Detention in Jails Since October 2021, the #WelcomeToCanada campaign has urged the country’s provinces to stop allowing the federal government to detain migrants and asylum seekers in local jails. In a major victory for migrant and refugee rights this week, the last remaining province has done so. Now the pressure is on the federal government to stop this rights-violating system across the country. Global Momentum Builds Toward Free Education for All Children Globally, nearly half of all children are not enrolled in preprimary education. In 2021, only 45 percent of children completed secondary school. But as countries convene at the UN’s top human rights body in Geneva, there are signs of a potential giant leap forward amid growing hopes for new legal recognition of every child’s right to free education, from pre-primary through secondary education. |
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