In northern Nigeria, authorities use the COVID-19 crisis to ban informal Koranic schools

Governors of 19 states across northern Nigeria ban informal Islamic madrassa schools where students are taught the Koran but have to beg on the streets. The students, most of them underaged, live in squalid and cramped accommodations which makes them more vulnerable to the virus. Kano habours the largest number of the around 10 million child beggars in the north, according to UNICEF. Their wanderings across the city for alms potentially aids the virus to spread, according to officials, which has prompted the officials to act despite several failed attempts to end the practice.

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