Kano, Nigeria — Authorities in northern Nigeria’s largest city have begun evacuating more than 5,000 street children they see as a “security threat” and a growing concern as the economic crisis forces more to fend for themselves. Hisbah, the regional police force tasked with enforcing Islamic Sharia law, has been carrying out midnight raids on motor parks, markets and street corners in the regional capital, Kano, since the beginning of the year, evacuating children as they sleep.

“So far we have removed 300 boys from the streets and taken them to a camp designed for their rehabilitation,” Hisbah director general Abba Sufi told AFP. “Their continued life on the streets is a major social and security threat because potential criminals are recruits.”

“They are a time bomb that needs to be defused urgently with tact and care,” said Sufi.

In November, Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf established a committee to remove street children, most of whom are boys, from the city. Many sleep in the open and have no access to education or parental care.

With the highest divorce rate in Nigeria, according to official figures, Kano is dealing with an increase in the number of children from broken families.

Mostly left to their own devices, the boys wander around the city, begging, selling things at traffic lights and looking for scrap metal to sell in order to get money for food.

The West African powerhouse is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with inflation soaring to 34.6 percent in November, leaving many in dire straits.

According to a 2022 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) survey, Nigeria has 18.5 million out-of-school children, with Kano State having 1.9 million, the highest rate in the country.

Kano’s figure accounts for 39% of the total number of children living in the state, according to the 2022 Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Survey.

Officials told AFP that many of the children in the city of Kano came from neighboring states.

“Some of them are from Kano while others are from other states,” said Hisbah commander Aminu Daurawa. “The first step is to profile them and determine where they came from.”

Some were sent from the countryside to learn to read the Koran in informal Islamic religious schools called almajiris. Residents said that many students of Koranic schools beg for food and alms between classes.

Attempts by the authorities and local groups to intervene and support the age-old almajiri system were met with opposition from traditional priests.

Hisbah police plan to provide “psychosocial” support and counseling to children before enrolling those who show interest in school, Sufi said, adding that others will be given seed money to start a business of their choice.

Daurawa told AFP that children outside the country would be repatriated after rehabilitation.

Previous attempts to rid the city of street children have failed.

Between 2017 and 2018, Hisbah evacuated about 26,000 children and reunited them with their parents in and outside Kano, but they returned to the streets after the lull, according to Daurawa.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities in Kano closed almajiri schools and transported the students to their home states, but they returned when the schools reopened.

“We want to avoid repeating past experiences, which is why we changed our approach by camping children and rehabilitating them before returning them to society,” Sufi said.