By Ajoke Babareke, Abuja, Nigeria.
UNICEF says it has provided support for the return of Almajirai to their families and applaud their reunion with their parents.
UNICEF’s Child Protection Specialist in Maiduguri, Miatta Abdullai, said this followed an assessment of mechanism put in place by the organisation to ensure that the children remains with their families.
UN organisation had provided health nutrition, hygiene and sanitation services in temporary shelters provided by the state government for the children.
Abdullai also disclosed that UNICEF had put in place community monitoring mechanisms to ensure that children remained with their families.
According to Miatta Abdullai, “UNICEF made sure that health, nutrition, water, hygiene and sanitation services were available in the temporary shelters the government provided.”
” We also provided the children with safe psychosocial, recreational and life skills training as the first step towards their reintegration into their communities, outside the Almajiri system.”
” We equally put in place community monitoring mechanisms to ensure these children remain with their families and do not return to life as Almajirai,” said Abdullai.
Recall that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic , state governments in northern Nigeria banned the Almajiri system as a measure to prevent the spread of the Corona virus.
In another development, UNICEF has called on the Nigerian Government and the Kano State Government to urgently review the case of a 13-year old child recently sentenced to 10years imprisonment with menial labour for blasphemy.
UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, said the sentencing of the 13-year old child, Omar Farouk, to 10 years in prison with menial labour is wrong,”
Hawkins stated that it negates all core underlying principles of child rights and child justice that Nigeria and by implication, Kano State government has signed on to.
The sentence was handed down in Kano after he was convicted of blasphemy on 10th August, 2020
