Crisis in crisis: Boko Haram violence, orphaned children, and the precariousness in human survival in Northeast Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The bulk of research exploring the impacts of Boko Haram-induced crisis in Nigeria’s Northeast region focuses on the country’s social, economic, and political conditions while the understanding on the welfare of vulnerable populations – children living in the conflict-ridden communities is sparse. This study addresses the sparsity by investigating the plights of children who became orphans in the wake of horrific Boko Haram attacks in the region in the mid-2010s. Using a qualitative method, we draw insights from Damaturu, Yobe State, where three hundred and eight (orphaned) children were recruited and interviewed. Based on our analysis of the interview data, we argue that they suffered life-threatening situations – parental fatalities by insurgents, alms begging, hard labour for sustenance, degrading living conditions, sexual exploitation, and recruitment into armed groups for violence. The cumulative effects of the attacks made them unsafe and vulnerable to unconventional coping strategies and delinquency amidst the precarity of decent living in the communities. We provide key research and policy-relevant evidence in advancing the understanding of the predicaments of children in wars and socio-politically precarious environments. Also, we underscore the need for holistic and targeted interventions that include vulnerable children in post-insurgency humanitarian efforts to mitigate their discomfort and improve their living conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• Boko-Haram insurgency
• violence
• humanitarian crisis
• Northeast Nigeria

Introduction

Being a major national security concern in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin region (Chiluwa and Chiluwa 2020; Omenma, Abada, and Omenma 2023), Boko Haram’s (BH) persistent and deadly attacks in Nigeria’s Northeast region have killed thousands, displaced millions of people, and exacerbated humanitarian catastrophes. As in other conflict zones around the world, the most vulnerable groups during and after insurgency in Nigeria are children and women (Wessells and Kostelny 2021). These two groups are among the most affected populations, representing about 87% of the displaced people in the region (United Nations Refugee Agency & World Bank 2016). Sixty per cent of approximately 1.4 million people who were displaced from their homes during the attacks were children. Many of them are separated from their parents and guardians, and they suffer varying difficulties, including post-traumatic effects of the conflict, a lack of access to basic needs (healthy food, drinking water, access to healthcare services, clothing, and education), abuse and sexual violence (Okoli and Lenshie 2021). Even without the BH insurgency, most children in the entire northern region of Nigeria are exposed to a wide range of predicaments, including child marriage, lack of education, neglect, homelessness, malnutrition, genital mutilation, and other harmful traditional practices.¹ The creation of BH and the escalation of its violent activities further complicate the plight of many children in the northeast zone. The effects of the attacks are multiplicative for those affected, particularly children who became orphans due to the attacks (United Nations News Center 2018).

While a significant number of these children were relocated to and settled in the internally displaced peoples’ (IDPs) camps following the attacks, others remained in the conflict cities and moved on with their lives. The focus of this study is on this group of children. Unlike other victims who were settled in IDP camps where they were provided with humanitarian services, many victims, particularly orphans who remained in these conflict towns, barely received any support, perhaps due to the inadequate provision of relief aid (Olusegun and Ogunfolu 2019). Accordingly, fulfilling daily basic needs such as food became a serious challenge for most of them (Yusha’u et al. 2013). They are more vulnerable to risks, thereby complicating their traumatic experiences (Okon 2018).

Many were forced onto the street to beg for food and money to survive (Itumo and Nwefuru 2016). In some quarters, this alternative is generally encouraged due to the acceptance of the widespread phenomenon of street children, commonly referred to as ‘Almajiri children’, in most northern cities (Olusegun and Ogunfolu 2019). However, in this study, we seek to understand the conditions of these children amidst BH attacks, particularly as their survival is complicated by their pre-existing social-medical concerns – low educational enrolment, malnutrition, poverty, and disease epidemics, among other macro-level disadvantages. After this introduction, section 2 briefly provides a background to the BH insurgency and discusses children as enablers and victims of wars. Given that some children became Almajiri children due to homelessness caused by the insurgency, section 3 discusses the issue of Almajiri children in Northern Nigeria. Section 4 presents an overview of the study’s direction and contribution to research and policy, while section 5 illustrates the methodology used in the study. Finally, section 6 presents the results and discusses our findings, conclusions, and implications for policy.

The Boko Haram insurgency: children as enablers and victims of wars

Given the failures of successive national administrations to address the many issues that triggered revolts against the state, Boko-Haram, popularly known as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad (People Committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad) emerged to establish a caliphate (Dawlah Islamiyah). Starting as a group of radicals in Maiduguri, Borno State, in 2002 (Onuoha 2012), BH originated as a product of religious division and agitation for a Sharia government that would provide social justice and decent governance in Muslim-dominated Northern Nigeria (Nweke and Etido-Inyang 2020). Their insistence on establishing a caliphate and enshrining Sharia law into the sociopolitical order became a major sticking point, fuelling their increasingly strident opposition to the country’s secular government.

The initial conflict occurred in Kanema, Yobe State, in December 2003, when the radicals, while expressing dissatisfaction with the prevailing socio-political structure and corrupt practices by Muslim elites, initiated assaults on the local population (Shodunke 2021a). Their instances of clashes with locals for fishing rights and farmland resulted in riots, looting, and the death of two police officers (Gana et al. 2018). The resultant police intervention led to the arrest of several members of the sect, sending others into hiding. Following the arrest of its leader, Yusuf, and his death in police custody in 2009, there were uprisings protesting his death in Maiduguri city, which degenerated into a full-blown insurgency in the same year. Since then, the group has become more radicalized, vicious and one of the deadliest terror groups, causing one of the world’s most severe humanitarian catastrophes (Onapajo 2020).

Although the sect claims Western education is forbidden, as its name ‘Boko-Haram’ loosely means, it utilises advanced technology including machine and rocket artillery, RPG-7 rocket launchers, gun-mounted Toyota Hilux vehicles, and Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) (Omeni 2018) to sustain its murderous campaign (Shodunke 2021b). It is also a hybrid security challenge, using irregular warfare tactics – motorized infantry, kidnapping, ambush, and hostage-taking (Shodunke 2021a). The sect members marry off kidnapped girls and other girls are forcefully conscripted into the sect by their partners for suicide bombing purposes. Thirteen percent of suicide bombings between January 2014 and December 2016 were perpetrated by children (Abdu and Shehu 2019). Some females were subjected to training and coerced into assuming roles as warriors, spies, and suicide bombers. In Maiduguri in 2013, two women were discovered concealing an AK-47, a handgun, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) under their veils (Abdu and Shehu 2019). Despite the military’s achievements, girls and women have carried out targeted attacks through over 100 suicide bombings (Abdu and Shehu 2019). In 2018, Nigeria had the second-highest population of children (1,947, comprising 1,596 boys and 351 girls) who were recruited for conflict (UN General Assembly 2019). Furthermore, the role of children in driving the insurgency is not limited to girls. BH-captured young boys are trained and used as front-line child soldiers. Nearly 20% of the abducted street children or Almajiri in the northeast were used as fighters and suicide bombers between 2014 and 2016 (UNICEF 2016), indicating the instrumental role children play in protracting the insurgency.

While they have played strategically deadly roles, the children have also been collateral damage in the decade-long insurgency. After BH shifted their deadly focus from public institutions to schools and hospital facilities in 2013 (Onapajo 2020), the kidnappings and killings of children escalated, resulting in the deaths of 3,909 and injury to 7,333 children from 2015 to 2016.

Attacks targeting children include the infamous abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno, in April 2014 and the kidnapping of 110 female students in Dapchi, Yobe state, in 2018 (Alimba 2018). Given BH’s ideological opposition to education, schools and educational facilities in the northeast have been targeted (Shodunke 2021b), making education facilities unsafe to attend. More than 2000 schools in the northern region were shut down, leaving between 10.5 million to 13.2 million children out of school (Aljazeera News 2017; OCHA 2020). Teachers and students were warned to abstain from secular schools and embrace Islamic education (Bano 2020). Teenage girls were warned to discontinue schooling and get married (Prieto Curiel, Walther, and O’Clery 2020). Given these devastations, it is crucial to understand the BH violence on children and how they react to and cope with it.

The phenomenon of Almajiri in Northern Nigeria

The term Almajiri is a tainted form of the Arabic word ’Al-Muhajirun’, which denotes a group of persons who migrate from their homes and cities to seek Islamic knowledge (Yusha’u et al. 2013). The basis for this quest, according to Olaniran (2018), centred on the saying of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), which enjoined people of all races to seek knowledge as far as China (being the farthest place to Mecca at his time). Almajiri usually includes males and females of all ages, adults, adolescents, and young children. The practice of seeking Islamic knowledge in this way has existed in northern Nigeria, where Islam was the predominant religion, since before the colonial days and has remained common in northern cities (Adetoro 2010). Known as Tsangaya, the system was designed and organized to teach and spread Islamic values and teachings. It was largely funded by the state and was free until the country’s occupation by the British (Bano 2020), leading to funding difficulties and the introduction of the Western education system (Aliyu and Umar 2019).

Hence, teachers and (Almajiri) students resorted to seeking assistance from the public to sustain the system but it eventually lost its noble purpose (Aliyu and Umar 2019), leading to the emergence of mini-Islamic schools (called Makarantar) established by some of the Tsangaya teachers. To maintain the Makarantar, teachers frequently sent their Almajiri out to seek support from the public (Mande 2014). Also, a weekly fee was introduced for all the Almajiri. This further compelled them to find money at all costs. For this reason, Almajiri wandered across the communities in search of their daily needs (Mande 2014), resulting in the phenomenon of Almajiri in present-day Northern Nigeria. The context of northern culture has changed completely, and the term Almajiri is now generally used to refer to disadvantaged and young children (aged five and above) who wander the streets begging for basic needs, especially food, and do not have the opportunity to attend secular school (Aliyu and Umar 2019). An average Almajiri child typically looks dirty, unkempt, tattered, and homeless (Yusha’u et al. 2013).

While many Almajiri are enrolled in Makarantar, many are not. However, they all wander the streets and go from house to house begging for sustenance or engaging in risky income-earning activities (Olaniran 2018). Makarantar students who do not spend 24 hours on the street usually return to study in the morning and evening in an environment Zakir et al. (2014) describe as untidy, congested, and ill-equipped. Hence, Almajiri form a significant number of the out-of-school population of 15 million nationally (United Nations Refugee Agency & World Bank 2016), wandering the streets in a quest for livelihood, engaging in anti-social behaviours and being used for violence. As argued by conflict and security experts, the acceptance of the Almajiri system has created and sustained a large workforce of children who can easily be tricked into the assurance of rewards or a lofty place in heaven by those advocating they should join the conflict (Aghedo and Eke 2013). Many of them are considered available as cheap foot soldiers and have contributed to the endless insurgency and banditry in the region (Adetoro 2010; Edinyang, Bassey, and Ushie 2020).

The current study

Thus far, there are inadequate studies on this group of displaced victims of the BH insurgency. Previous research on the victims of BH is largely theoretical and focused mainly on the experiences of those who relocated to the IDP camps; they are mostly adults-based studies (Okoli and Lenshie 2021; Okon 2018; Olusegun and Ogunfolu 2019; Onapajo 2020). Security scholars have not given much attention to the phenomenon of Almajiri in the north in their research; as a result, consideration has not been given to the factors that have contributed to the increasing number of Almajiri children in recent years. This study attempts to fill these research gaps by exploring the aftereffects of the BH insurgency, particularly how it has contributed to the increase in the number of Almajiri children in the northeast, where insecurity is a major issue. It aims to explore and investigate the experience of some children who became orphans due to the attacks: the nature of their orphanhood, what stays in their minds about their experience, problems and risks they encounter on the street and their means of livelihood in their present social environment. Our study focused on orphans – those who lost one or both parents due to BH attacks in Damaturu, Yobe State, Northeast Nigeria.

Data and methods

The study area

This research was carried out in Damaturu, the capital city of Yobe State, located in the northeast of Nigeria. Damaturu is one of the cities in the northeast where BH insurgency and its effects are clearly evident. The distance between Damaturu and Maiduguri (the epicentre of the insurgency) is about 133.4 kilometres via Maiduguri-Potiskum Road. The proximity of the two cities made Damaturu one of the cities that was significantly affected by BH activities. In addition, Damaturu, like other cities in the northeast, has many street and Almajiri children (Zenn 2020). Estimating the total number of Almajiri children in Damaturu is difficult because there is no official figure or systematic data gathering.

Study design

This study is a cross-sectional survey of the street and Almajiri children living in Damaturu, where qualitative data were collected by contacting them on the streets. This study is part of a research project that focuses on the impacts of BH insurgent activities in the northeast region of Nigeria. It was originally undertaken to examine one of the neglected aftermaths of the insurgent attacks on families, particularly children, in the city of Damaturu. It looks at the children who lost their parents, siblings, and other members of their families in the attacks, being the key victims who experienced these vicious situations. The violence suffered by these children at the hands of insurgents, the situation that they found themselves in as a result of the violence, and their present condition, inform the primary focus of the research.

Population and sampling method

The population for this study is made up of children who lost one or both of their parents to the BH insurgent attacks and who, also as a result of a lack of support mechanisms, have become street/Almajiri children in the city of Damaturu. The study’s conceptualization of orphanhood refers to children who are under the age of 18 years, have lost one or both parents and are therefore no longer under the care of either parent or have the care of their traditional family, making them susceptible to safety/living threats.

This population was homogeneous in terms of background, shared experiences of insurgent attacks, exposure to prolonged violence, lack of education, and religion. Based on the researchers’ (and interviewers’) previous acquaintance with Almajiri children in the area, contacting them and speaking about the study was not a problem. In this way the researchers could identify the targets of the study (Salihu and Fawole 2020). Participants were selected using a multistage sampling technique including purposive sampling (where participants were selected based on previous knowledge of some participants), snowball sampling (helped by referrals by Almajiri children selected by the purposive method), venue-based and convenience method (participants were met at various places such as playgrounds, residences or came to the interviewers to ask for food and money) (Ponizovsky-Bergelson et al. 2019; Ray 2017). Initially, the interviewers reached out to a remarkably large group of participants (about 604). However, due to certain factors, many of them opted out of the study (103) before the interview and 63 during the interview for reasons not disclosed to the interviewers; some responses (87) were inconsistent and considered unreliable, some of those interviewed (43) are physically challenged (deaf and dumb) and could not respond to sign language due to their lack of the skill. Thus, 308 street children who are victims of the insurgency participated in the study.

Study instrument

Semi-structured and unstructured interviews and observations were the methods adopted in data collection. The use of multiple data sources was informed by the need for the researchers to demonstrate the validity of the results through data saturation (Fusch and Ness 2015). Semi-structured interviews were directed towards generating rich and in-depth information about the experiences of the participants during the insurgent attacks that led to the loss of their parent(s) and other members of their families (Ray 2017). They were asked to describe their situation and what informed their decision to move to the street and join Almajiri children. This question emphasizes how participants understand and attribute meanings to their situation. Another question was about the level of support they received (if any) in difficult times and from whom, and the past occurrence of negative life events was compared with the present and future expectations.

Unstructured interviews allowed the researchers and participants more natural discourse (Wahle et al. 2017). In this way, participants were inspired to express themselves freely. With this method, our conversations with participants attracted some peers (including other Almajiri) who happened to be around and were listening. They naturally showed interest in joining the conversation; besides, they (including the participants) were pleased to share their experiences and were ready to add to what others said. Observation was considered necessary for the researchers to detect participants’ non-verbal expressions, such as their body language, facial expressions, silence, and other behaviour, including clothes, physical appearance, and other things about which information might not have been given if questions were asked (Dunphy and Farrell 2011). This method assisted the interviewers in reducing false information respondents often give as they are defensive about some sensitive subjects, to improve their sense of worth, attract interviewers’ sympathy, or influence the research outcomes. Rephrasing and twisting questions in another way, and creating a context for each question, were also used to verify respondents’ responses. Due to the nature of the targeted population, the services of eight research experts who were familiar with Almajiri and acquainted with the environment, were drawn from different fields of study, including sociology, psychology, guidance and counselling, criminology and social work, and employed as interviewers. The authors served as part of the research team, formulated the procedures, provided interview guides, and analysed the data (Liebenberg 2018; Ponizovsky-Bergelson et al. 2019). Each interviewer conducted at least 30 interviews over six months. The interviews were conducted in an environment familiar to the participants. Some places used included their playgrounds, and residential areas (such as incomplete and abandoned buildings, markets, and public places under the bridge) (Salihu and Fawole 2020). We opted for those locations because some children, as Clark (2010) has observed, may not respond to questions if they are unfamiliar with the environment. The interviewers used open-ended questions to encourage the participants to reflect deeply on circumstances, allowing them to take the lead and pursue emerging ideas, making them feel appreciated and their opinions respected.

Additionally, the interviewers used expressions such as ‘this is interesting’, ‘wow’, ‘I see’, ‘okay’, and ‘Oh’ to exhibit their keen interest and admiration for the participants’ responses (Tay-Lim and Lim 2013). These expressions allowed the discussion topics to emerge from the participants. The interviews were conducted in Hausa and Kanuri languages – the indigenous languages that are widely spoken in the area (Salihu 2019). Each interview lasted between 25 and 30 minutes and was tape-recorded with audio digital devices. It is important to point out that the period of the interviews was during the COVID-19 pandemic between the second quarter of 2020 (after the lifting of the COVID-19 lockdown order) and the first quarter of 2021, about six years after these children became orphans and turned to the street. All COVID-19 guidelines from Nigerian government and World Health Organization were appropriately observed and adhered to during the interviews. All interviewers used nose covers and hand sanitizers, and maintained social distancing with the participants. Each participant was given a nose cover before the start of the interview.

Analysis

Information collected through the interviews was analysed to answer the research questions and cover the objectives. All interview comments and conversations relevant to the research objectives were first translated into English; the information was then scrutinized and coded using the thematic method of analysis (Salihu 2019; Shodunke 2022). This method allows the researchers to identify the different feedback patterns in the interview transcript and to read, comprehend, and recognize the essential and uniform themes (Braun and Clarke 2006). Also, some participants’ expressions were cited (verbatim) to demonstrate further their positions on key subjects (Fereday and Muir-Cochrane 2006).

Consent process

Considering the ethical issues and possible psychological consequences of involving children in research, particularly on matters regarding their past experience of violent life events, all participants were subjected to standard informed consent protocols as highlighted in the National Health Research Ethics Committee of Nigeria (NHRECN). For participants who had one of their two parents or guardians, their parents/guardians were visited to seek their consent. The visit was considered appropriate because some were uneducated, some were too old, and others were incapacitated and could not read, write, or respond to the consent letter or form. Nonetheless, the researchers obtained recorded verbal approval for the children to participate (see NHRECN, 2016 Policy Statement Regarding Enrolment of Children in Research in Nigeria [PS2.1016]). However, in the absence of guidelines for the participation of children whose parents/guardians are unreachable (particularly children who lost their parents to BH insurgent attacks), some steps were taken by the researchers to protect and ensure the safety, privacy and confidentiality of the participants.

Firstly, since the majority of the participants’ parents were largely unavailable and they (participants) were not under the care of any institution, permission was obtained directly from these children. In simple words (in Hausa and Kanuri languages), the research objectives, as well as what the research would require of them, were spelt out to the children. Above all, the fact that some questions which might prompt memories of their past life events was discussed with them (Ponizovsky-Bergelson et al. 2019). Once the researchers ascertained that the children understood the purpose and the potential risks and agreed to participate, their consent was recorded and documented on an audiotape (Salihu 2019).

Accordingly, participation was voluntary, and participants were informed of their right to withdraw from the study at any stage of the data collection. Secondly, to reduce the effects of the potential risks associated with their participation, interviewers were requested to use ice-breakers, which would reduce their stress and help keep participants calm. Fun activities such as hide-and-seek games and sports (such as football, dart, ludo, and draft) were organized for the participants (Ray 2017). In addition, interviewers were instructed to provide personal counselling support (outside the interview questions/objectives) for the participants about how they could help them to have a promising future. Fourthly, the assurance and significance of not disclosing any information that was shared with the interviewers were highlighted to the participants. All information that may be traceable to participants, such as their locations and names, which were inadvertently mentioned and captured in the recordings, were erased from the pool of data.

Results

Demographics of the participants

Interview information that forms the primary data for this study was obtained from 308 orphans who are victims of BH insurgent attacks living on the streets of Damaturu, the capital city of Yobe state, Nigeria. The participants consisted of 226 male and 82 female children aged between 12 and 16 years old. The youngest at 12 years old made up approximately 14% of the participants; the oldest at 16 years old made up about 23% of the children, while the majority (63%) fell between 14 (31%) and 15 (32%) year-olds.

The female orphans were between 13 and 14 years old. It should be noted that all the participants were between 6 and 10 years old when the incident occurred (i.e. during the intense period of insurgent attacks in Damaturu city between 2012 and 2014). Regarding their educational background and status, all the participants were in the school-going age group. Some of them were attending or enrolled in basic (primary) schools, and their parents were responsible for their expenses until the incidents occurred. Some attended public schools and very few attended private schools. At the time of the interviews, none of these children were in school; they had all dropped out of school and are not enrolled in any informal Qur’anic school or vocational training, which is common in the area.

With respect to the nature of their orphanhood, participants’ descriptions of the insurgent attacks that happened on the day their parent(s) died, or were last seen, confirmed that BH insurgent attacks, which claimed thousands of lives in the city, were the cause of their orphanhood. The majority (74%) lost both parents, and others (26%) lost one parent to the attacks. However, a few (4%) of those (26%) who lost one parent claimed to have lost the other parent (maternal orphans 1% and paternal orphans 3%) before the incidents. Others (remaining 22% of 26%) fall into two categories: those who reported that their remaining parents are incapacitated due to the injuries suffered (13%) and those whose parents are old and feeble and mostly women who have lost their sources of income and could no longer afford to take care of their needs at home (9%).

Dilemmas encountered during the intense period of insurgent attacks − 2012 and 2014

Participants’ accounts and expressions indicate that several of them watched their parents, siblings and other close relatives killed by either stray bullets, gunfire, or bomb explosion. Many recounted that during the intense period of the attack, their father, brother, uncle, and neighbours who were men were lined up and shot and some beheaded. While some participants noted that their parents went out to get food and never returned, some said that they do not know whether their siblings and other family members are dead or still alive, and some said that their parents took them somewhere to hide and they never saw them again. Also, some participants said that they were captured together with their mothers, aunties and other female relatives, and the insurgents took them all away. Similarly, some noted that their aunties, sisters, and other female members of their families were battered and raped. Some participants’ accounts are as follows:

After staying indoors for days and there is nothing left to eat, my father told us that he was going out to find food for us, but he never came back. I know he has been killed.

We (my father and I) were captured along with other young boys and girls and gathered at a place. All the adult men were called out, lined up and shot one by one in front of all of us. While all the women and young girls were taken away.

My father and elder brother were killed in our presence (my mother, sister and myself), after which my mother and sister were raped. As a result, my sister got pregnant but later died of abortion complications, and my mother committed suicide.

What goes on in their minds?

A significant number of the participants were between 6 and 10 years old when the incidents happened and moved to the street at that tender age. Consequently, most of them experienced terrifying situations while growing up. The implications of their distressing experiences (during the insurgent attacks and while being homeless) were observed in some of the areas where they reside and their playgrounds. Some disturbing drawings (made with charcoal) depicting violence and hostilities were noticed on the walls. It was discovered during the interview that some of these orphans and Almajiri made the drawings.

To comprehend what goes on in their minds, given what they have gone through and are presently going through, some participants (about 42% including females) who could draw were grouped and provided with drawing tools (paper, pencils and colour crayons) to draw anything that comes to their minds (Ray 2017). Shockingly, among the images drawn by this group of participants were guns, a machete, a man in military camouflage, a bullet, a tied and blindfolded girl/woman, and a man holding a gun, among others. The drawings were unprofessional and difficult to comprehend, but participants’ explanations after the drawings gave the interviewers a perfect understanding of what they drew (Ray 2017; Tay-Lim and Lim 2013). Their explanations suggested that some of them sketched what they witnessed during the attacks.

However, given the influence of movies and home video games on children and adolescent behaviour (Ferguson et al. 2014; Saeed, Rehman, and Usmani 2018), this group of participants were further asked if they have been watching violent movies and playing violent video games in recent times. This question was considered necessary to check if variables other than what they had experienced might have also influenced or played a significant role in their drawings. To the greatest surprise, most of the participants recounted that the last time they had access to television, movies and games was during the periods with their parents before the BH incidents. However, very few of them said that they watch television programmes like sports (football in particular) at the viewing centres in their neighbourhood. Moreover, while responding to questions on the emotional strain, all the participants recounted that they were devastated and distressed for months after the incidents; however, from their expressions during the interview, it appeared that they were not completely affected emotionally. It was observed that this is perhaps due to their present age and exposure to street life, even though virtually all of them wished to go back to their parent and or relatives.

Post-attack surviving strategies and well-being

Following the demise of their parent(s), guardians and relatives and given the presence of Almajiri in the city of Damaturu and its environs, participants recount that the only alternative means they can use to survive is to go to the street and join Almajiri. By their characteristics, Almajiri usually wander around the streets and go from household to household in the morning, afternoon and evening to beg for food, water, and other basic needs. In this way, they do just like Almajiri to survive every day. To further probe whether some factors like prior exposure to street or Almajiri life might have also influenced their decisions to join Almajiri, participants were asked if they had been to the street or exposed to street life while under the care of their parents. Based on their responses, although they were aware of Almajiri like every other resident in northern Nigeria, none of them had been on the street or exposed to street life. Generally, participants’ accounts indicated that they willingly chose to stay in Damaturu city rather than relocate to a place (IDPs camp) where they ‘do not know and/or have an assurance of getting the daily needs’. Interview information also indicated that there were no or inadequate provisions in the form of humanitarian aid or support for them at that time. While the majority of these children, particularly the younger ones, wander from house to house and street to street begging for food, a significant proportion of them (33%) also engage in income-earning activities such as hawking petty items like candles, shaving sticks/blades, razor, cigarette sachet, bottled water, candies, and groceries. Others engage in running errands for people in their neighbourhoods. Some work as scavengers, car washers, and porters in local markets, among other activities. Most of the females work in households as housekeepers and cleaners in restaurants, parks, and public places.

Additionally, participants were asked if they would like to return to school or learn vocational (apprenticeship) training if given the opportunity. It is disturbing that very few (about 17% out of which 57% were female children) said they would like to return to school, and 9% expressed interest in apprenticeship training such as barbering/hairdressing, fashion and fabric design, shoemaking, electronics and computer installation. Meanwhile, the remaining (74%) and some of those (7%) who indicated interest in apprenticeship training claimed that they would not go back to formal school because it is forbidden. It was seen as the reason why the BH insurgent group killed their parent(s) and many other people. Therefore, they prefer the street way of life.

Substance dependency and delinquent behaviour

Given the alarming addiction to drug substances in the northern part of Nigeria in recent years (Dangana et al. 2016), the fact that cigarettes were among the items participants were selling, and given the environment in which they live and work, the researchers observed that some participants had developed some addictive behaviour and started exhibiting some symptoms (such as restlessness, incoherence, loss of appetite and weight) common to drug abusers. Participants were asked if they smoked or had smoked cigarettes or marijuana and/or taken codeine, tramadol, and other common addictive drugs. Virtually all the participants (including female participants) are using or have used some psychoactive stimulant and/or native intoxicants such as locally-made solutions. Common substances and stimulants reported by participants include kola nuts, alcohol, native gins, cigarettes, and marijuana. Other unusual intoxicants used include smoking sugarcane chaff, dried neem (Dogo Yaro) and pawpaw leaves. It is important to note that all the participants reported having used these unusual intoxicants. At the same time, they were first initiated into smoking and used these intoxicants at times, especially when they did not have enough money to buy psychoactive substances. Besides, drug abuse is perceived as a normal way of life.

Additionally, consistent with previous academic studies on delinquent behaviour among Almajiri children, the interview information revealed that participants, particularly male children (regardless of age), also exhibited criminally inclined behaviours (Adetoro 2010; Aghedo and Eke 2013). They engage in delinquent behaviour such as stealing, shoplifting, snatching and drug dealings. Female participants were somewhat reserved in their responses to questions on delinquent behaviour; nonetheless, some of them claimed to have engaged in petty crimes such as theft. Furthermore, some of the male children were found with fresh and healing wounds and scars, which they claimed were inflicted on them when they were caught stealing and/or by their bosses/drug handlers for not delivering all the money from the sales or delivery of drugs such as marijuana, tramadol, and codeine. Some of the participants’ accounts are as following:

I was injured by my boss for not giving him all the money I got from my previous delivery. I told him that I was sick, and I used the money for treatment.

If anytime one fails to deliver all the money realised from the delivery or fails to deliver to a client on time, our boss will beat and hurt that person.

I was beaten by people in the market when I was caught stealing.

Vulnerability to danger/risks

Based on the accounts of the participants and observations of the researchers, it was discovered that these children, like street children in other parts of the world, are vulnerable to many risks and harsh living conditions during their daily income-earning undertakings (Joel and Jessie 1999). Participants claimed that they engage in some activities, such as selling on the highways and railway lines and that many of their peers have been hit by a car and crushed by a train. Others are remanded in juvenile homes for dealing with drugs, stealing, and raping girls. Moreover, female participants who work as domestics reported sexual harassment, rape and molestation by their employers and customers. Other common problems participants reported were health risks due to exposure to unconducive weather conditions and a harmful environment. Problems observed include skin, mouth and ear infections, tooth decay, eye problems, malnourishment, unhealthy food and drinking water and lack of access to primary healthcare services. Other risks reported include extortion by street adults and law enforcement agents, and gang violence. Given that the interviews were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, participants were asked about their awareness of the virus and the various measures put in place to curb its spread. Participants’ accounts indicate that all of them were aware of COVID-19; basically, they received information about the virus, its implications, and preventive measures from adults around them, particularly from those who give them food and money, those who buy items from them and those who employ their services. However, participants appear unconcerned about the virus and its impending effects.

The majority of them do not have a nose cover or access to sanitizer and do not practice social distancing. Like every other day, they move and play together in groups. A participant humorously said, ‘If BH bombs and bullets did not kill me, Coronavirus cannot kill me’. Also, participants were asked how they managed to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown orders when movements were restricted and/or banned and social distancing enforced (Shodunke 2023, 2024; Shodunke and Oladipupo 2022; Shodunke et al. 2022). Their responses show that the lockdown order greatly threatened their way of life. The majority of them recounted that it was difficult to get food in the first few days of the lockdown; however, they had no choice but to flout the order. Those who beg for food and money claimed they went from house to house as in normal days. However, those who engaged in selling petty items found it difficult to sell during the period; most of them stated that they resorted to begging.

Discussion

For many years, the increase in the number of street children in northern Nigeria has been linked with parental neglect, divorce, single-parenthood, and abusive households. The Almajiri phenomenon is one of the ignored social upheavals manifesting in different forms and fuelling violent/religious extremism in the northern region. However, little effort has been directed towards addressing identified factors – the politicization of the phenomenon and the use of Almajiri children for underage voting during elections and election-related violence (Adetoro 2010) in the region where the widespread availability of street children aids the insurgency that has killed and displaced people (Damaturu). The children’s accounts revealed that, although all of them were attending their primary education prior to the incidents, their age means some of them are supposed to be undergoing their secondary school education, but they are presently not. The increase in their number suggests it is connected to the number of parents and guardians incapacitated and/or killed during the attacks, which made some of them parentless, the absence of adult supervision and the non-availability of conflict-sensitive care to cater for their needs.

Hence, many of them whose parent(s) were affected by, or victims of, the attacks were forced to the street. They have no other alternative than to move to the street to join the neglected Almajiri children who have found begging for food and money and engaging in income-earning activities in their childhood/adolescence as a way of living. Their adolescence, homelessness, delinquency, and victimization predispose them to communicable diseases. They will grow up as street adults (without education and meaningful skills) who may later become a social nuisance, miscreants, street gang stars and drug users, posing a threat to public safety.

Further, the disruption in their education increases the population of out-of-school children in the north, making the region more vulnerable to being fertile ground for insurgent growth. Participants’ expressions about the period of intense insurgent attacks are indications of vicious and terrifying experiences they encountered at a tender age. Generally, children who experience aggression are not likely to forget it and they may carry the experience into adulthood, making them potentially destructive to others (Salihu and Gholami 2018) and shaping their life-course in a criminal direction. Delinquent and violent behaviour could be a general approach they will adopt in addressing unbearable issues (Agnew 1985; O’Flynn 1994). In this way, their inexplicable experiences combined with unpleasant thoughts running through their minds and demonstrated in their drawings, imply that they still reflect on the traumatic events they experienced some years after.

Additionally, their delinquency infers that the street environment has considerably influenced their behaviour. Participants’ character, development, and behaviour have significantly been affected by the street (social) learning process. Although many of them watched their relatives murdered, raped, and captured, all of them admitted that the incidents affected them for months. However, the majority of them (including female participants) seem not to be completely devastated emotionally after some time. The effects of their encounters (on emotional strength) might have been neutralized by the need to survive and get on with life and the need to cope with street challenges. They appear to have moved on by engaging in the various income-earning activities that fetch them money to take care of their needs.

However, most of these activities have exposed them to several risks which have claimed the lives of many other children on the street and rendered many unhealthy. Unlike the male participants, whose work is usually on the streets, some female participants who work as domestics and cleaners in restaurants enjoy certain privileges, such as consuming healthy foods and getting gifts-money, clothing, and shoes- from their employers. According to one of the female participants, ‘my employer wants me to look appealing and untethered, so she bought me new clothes and shoes, and toiletries, which I usually keep at her place and use whenever I am around’. However, some of them also experience assaults and maltreatment from their female employers and sexual molestation by their male employers, incidents which are barely reported; resisting these poses grave consequences: loss of job and a severe beating causing injuries (Covey et al. 2020).

Generally, in addition to their precarious living, the majority of these children resort to substance abuse using psychoactive drugs to which they have become addicted, displaying symptoms such as restlessness, incoherence, loss of appetite and weight common to drug abusers. They often resort to inexpensive native gins and other uncommon intoxicants (such as smoking sugarcane chaff, dried neem (Dogo Yaro) and pawpaw leaves), which are destructive to human body tissues and cells when they do not have enough money to buy psychoactive drugs. In describing how sugarcane chaff and the dried leaves are used, a participant said, ‘we gather the chaff or pawpaw leaf, rub it between palms to make a powdery of it. We put it in a rolling paper and fold it or put it in a bamboo stick, light and smoke it’. It was generally observed that lack of adult supervision and exposure to the street environment and ways of life are largely responsible for the abuse of drugs and other delinquent behaviours. Consequently, it appears that some local drug merchants in Damaturu leveraged the children’s vulnerability by using them as distributors to strengthen their local distribution networks. These drug handlers exploit them and treat them like adults.

Furthermore, the children’s decision not to return to formal education if presented with the opportunity has been largely influenced by the negative and widespread religious attitude towards Western education in northern Nigeria, fuelled by BH that Western education is evil to the wider society. It appears that the attacks also made some of these children internalize and forced to accept the belief that Western education is evil and should be forbidden.

Nonetheless, we observe three key factors also motivate the children’s decisions: a. exposure to money and self-struggle or quick-income activities; b. an absence of orientation about life and ambitions; c. what is obtainable and the aspiration of adults in their environment. Also, the socio-economic status of women (and girl-child) in the north as housewives might have given many female participants the impression of preferring not to go back to school or engage in vocational training. Hence, their reluctance rather aggravates their unspeakable experience amidst the crisis of living in the conflict communities.

Conclusion and implications for policy

The issue of street children, also known as Almajiri, has been in existence in northern Nigeria for decades. However, persistent BH attacks have seen a sharp increase in the children’s population, which has become a sociopolitical and public health concern due to their contributory role in insurgency and victimhood. To contribute to the literature on the plight of children in conflict caused by BH, and assist policy development, we examined the after effects of BH violence and persistent attacks in the 2010s in Damaturu (north-eastern region) on some children whose parent(s) were killed or incapacitated during these periods. Based on our findings, we argue that the upsurge in the number of Almajiri children in Damaturu in recent years is not unconnected with BH violence, which has claimed thousands of innocent lives and rendered some children parentless and consequently pushed them to the street to fend for themselves.

Accordingly, there is a need for swift intervention in the form of a comprehensive community-based approach that seeks to understand and address the key drivers of the insurgency and issues concerning the repair of social cohesion. Undoubtedly, religious leaders in the northern region have great influence over their followers. The head of religious institutions should be engaged and allowed to take a central position in the intervention process. Their roles should include organizing faith-based orientation programmes that will address the problem of Almajiri and the violation of rights.

Further, victims of the insurgency living in the affected cities should be included in the existing post-insurgency humanitarian and reconstruction efforts currently enjoyed by those in the IDP camps. Most of these services are embedded in transitional programmes, which provide, among other things, the distribution of food items and medical aids, rehabilitation and counselling services, and education for women and children to mitigate the effects of the attacks. This provision will go a long way in addressing the plights of the affected children and the potential dangers their street presence may pose to the region. Finally, the existing but non-functioning Almajiri education programme could be revived whereby the conflict-affected children are given formal education, and their welfare is taken care of by the authorities to make them agents of peace, stability and statebuilding.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13623699.2024.2361382

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Habeeb Abdulrauf Salihu

Habeeb Abdulrauf Salihu is a lecturer in the Department of Criminology and Security Studies, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. He holds a Doctoral Degree in Criminology and Criminal Law from Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. His research covers criminology, criminal law, corruption and policing. His academic works have appeared in leading journals such as International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, International Criminal Justice Review, Journal of Financial Crime, Crime, Law and Social Change, Contemporary Justice Review, among others. He can be reached on [email protected].

Ali Oladimeji Shodunke

Ali Oladimeji Shodunke is a PhD student in Criminology in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA. His research interests are Theoretical Criminology, Violence, Homicide, Policing & Police Affairs as well as Statebuilding. His recent scholarships can be found in leading journals such as Policing and Society, Third World Quarterly, International Journal of Law, Crime, and Justice, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, among others.

Notes

1. A national survey conducted in 2013 reported that about 6 out of 10 children from Northern Nigeria recounted having suffered one form of abuse and violence from either their family members or assailants [see Amole et al. (2021)]