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Amnesty International Nigeria has raised concerns over the suspension of academic activities in 20 of Sokoto State’s 23 local government areas following escalating bandit attacks.
The rights group warned that “generations of children are at the risk of missing out on education entirely.”
The Sokoto State Government ordered the closure of all public primary and secondary schools outside the state capital on Monday, citing a national government directive aimed at protecting students and staff amid worsening insecurity.
The directive exempts only schools in Sokoto North, Sokoto South and selected schools in Wamakko, Dange Shuni and Kware local government areas.
All other public schools will remain closed until further notice, effectively shutting down educational activities for hundreds of thousands of students across the state.
The move follows a wave of deadly attacks that killed at least 11 people in Rabah and Sabon Birni local government areas between Sunday and Monday.
On Monday, suspected bandits stormed Maikujera village in Rabah LGA on more than 30 motorcycles, killing seven people, including two members of the Sokoto Community Guard Corps.
The attack came less than 24 hours after another assault on Unguwan Lalle community in Sabon Birni LGA, where four residents were killed.
Sokoto state government had shut down schools in 20 out of 23 local governments of the state as a result of escalating attacks by bandits across the state. Generation of children are at the risk of missing out on education entirely: https://t.co/pedtll4KuF
— Amnesty International Nigeria (@AmnestyNigeria) July 30, 2026
Amnesty International had previously warned that Nigeria’s continued failure to halt the abduction of schoolchildren is putting “the education of a generation of children at risk”.
According to the rights group, at least 15 mass abductions of schoolchildren have been documented since the Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction in April 2014.
“What we are witnessing right now in the northern part of Nigeria is an assault on childhood and an utter failure to guarantee the safety and security of school children and teachers. It is not only school children that are unsafe. Hundreds of towns and villages have for many years endured frequent attacks by gunmen,” said Isa Sanusi, Director, Amnesty International Nigeria, in 2025.
“The Nigerian authorities are grossly failing in their constitutional and international human rights obligations to protect lives.
“This failure by the authorities to promote and ensure the security and safety of the population constitutes a serious breach of their human rights obligations, including under the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.
“Many abducted children and teachers are never released by their abductors. The possibility of abduction is forcing millions of children to abandon education, while underaged girls are having their education terminated and forced into marriage as a means of avoiding abduction at school. This is a devastating blow to years of efforts to boost enrollment in schools in the educationally disadvantaged parts of northern Nigeria.”
