NIGERIA: 8 CHRISTIAN CHILDREN STILL BEING HELD AFTER 6 YEARS

Back in 2019, police in KANO STATE, Nigeria, raided a Christian orphanage called ‘Du Merci’ on Christmas Day. They took 27 children away, saying the orphanage was illegal. But later, a court proved the orphanage had been running legally for years.

Even though the founder, Professor Solomon Tarfa, was cleared of all charges, eight of the children are still being held by the government in poor conditions. Some of the kids were hurt, got sick, or were pressured to change their religion. One girl even got burned in a fire at the government-run facility.

Image: Nigerian children

‘When they realised we wouldn’t break, they released us’

“They said they were rescuing us, but they were kidnapping us,” Gabriella, now a 22-year-old student at university, told Nigerian media. “They took us to a government orphanage and treated us like criminals. Our only crime was being raised by a man they falsely accused.”

“We prayed in whispers, hiding our Bibles,” says her brother, Joseph. “When they realised we wouldn’t break [and convert to Islam], they released us – the older ones – but kept the younger children who couldn’t fight back.”

The older kids who refused to convert to Islam were eventually let go, but the youngest ones are still stuck.

Many people—including government officials and the United Nations—have spoken out, saying the children should be freed. A court even ordered their release by March 2025, but nothing has happened yet.

John Samuel*, Open Doors’ legal expert for sub-Saharan Africa, said:

“Six years of injustice is enough – these children need their freedom now.”

This case shows how dangerous life can be for children in Nigeria, especially Christian children. They face mass kidnappings by extremists, detention by security forces, corporal punishment, child trafficking and bonded labour, making Nigeria one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a child.

*Names changed for security reasons