Nigeria: 192 Children Trafficked, Violated in Niger in Eight Months

What the report says

The Niger State Child Rights Protection Agency in northern Nigeria says it documented 192 cases of child abuse and rights violations between November 2025 and June 2026. According to Premium Times, which reported the remarks, the cases included rape, trafficking, forced marriage, abandonment, maltreatment, denial of maintenance and other forms of exploitation across different parts of the state.

Agency director-general Ummul Mohammed, speaking in Minna, said the complaints were recorded despite operational difficulties. She said the monthly totals ranged from 27 to 40 cases in the months she cited, and described incidents involving sexual abuse, missing children, domestic servitude, street hawking and children allegedly taken away under the pretext of religious instruction.

The agency also said it recently rescued 19 children from mining sites, including one who was about eight years old, and required their parents to sign financial bonds to deter their return to hazardous work. It has also handled cases of children allegedly trafficked for domestic labor and helped return a missing child to her family outside Niger State.

The report places the figures in a wider pattern of child protection concerns in Niger State, where police and courts have separately reported trafficking, sexual violence and other abuse cases in recent months and years. Mohammed said poverty, low awareness and weak reporting systems contribute to the problem, while the agency is trying to expand community sensitization, remove complaint fees and push prosecutions.