Even though the Borno State government banned begging on the streets of Maiduguri, some parents have forced their children to defy the ban in a desperate bid to get money for food.

In August 2019, Assistant Superintendent of Police Usman Usmobik Sadiq issued a statement banning all begging on the streets of the state capital.

But 11 years of violent attacks in the region by the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), also known as Boko Haram, has led to widespread hunger.

Many of the children are runaways who left their destroyed communities, ended up in Maiduguri and stated begging alongside the almajirai.

A group of child beggars in the capital told RNI that they started begging to get money for food.

“We wanted to become maids but people said we were too small to work for them. That was when we chose to beg for money and food,” one of the children said.

Most of the children said their parents had given them permission to beg. Some said their parents forced them to beg because they needed the money. Only one said his parents did not know he was begging.

A mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said her children mostly begged for money, which was used to buy food, firewood, charcoal, water, soap and shoes.

“I asked them to go and beg because we don’t have any other means to get money. And the children are too small to start working,” she said.

A father said his children were begging on the streets of Maiduguri because “they are internally displaced persons”.

“We’ve never asked them to go and beg. They see their friends and follow them on to the streets. We try to stop them from begging but they refuse to listen,” he said.

On January 10, Borno State government sought to empower the youth and people with disabilities by giving each a loan of 30, 000 naira to form small- and medium-size businesses – but this has not stopped begging in Maiduguri. In fact, the number of small children who beg has increased substantially.