Child soldiers, baby factories: US indicts Nigeria over official complicity

By Nkiru Nnorom United States government has indicted Nigeria for failing to meet minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, citing corruption, official complicity, and government failure to prosecute complicit officials. It also listed Nigeria among 14 countries recruiting and using child soldiers. This is contained in the 2026 Trafficking in Persons, TIP, Report, which covers April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.

The report retained Nigeria on Tier 2, a category defined as countries whose governments do not fully meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards but were making significant efforts to meet the requirements. It equally placed Nigeria on the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, CSPA, list alongside Afghanistan, Burma, Central African Republic, DRC, Ethiopia, Iran, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen. The U.S Department of State noted in the report that CSPA restrictions would apply to Nigeria on international military education and training, foreign military financing, excess defense articles, peacekeeping operations and licences for direct commercial sales of military equipment, absent in presidential waiver from October 1, 2026, following the CSPA listing.

The State Department, however, noted that the government demonstrated increasing efforts, including investigations, prosecutions, and convictions, compared with the previous reporting period and retained the country on Tier 2. The indictments The US, which noted that corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, said: “The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees allegedly complicit in trafficking crimes or provide details or other actions taken against complicit officials from previous years.” It noted that in many cases, the government coerced victims of forced marriage, including trafficking victims, to return to their Boko Haram husbands in Borno State demobilisation centers. It noted the government’s failure to protect victims, saying in 2025, 675 trafficking victims received assistance, compared to 2,058 victims the previous year, services, especially for male victims, remained limited.

According to the report, there is only one dedicated NGO shelter for adult male victims during the year. “NAPTIP’s shelters did not permit shelter residents fr…