THE United States has placed Nigeria on its Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA) list, noting that it could trigger restrictions on military assistance, weapons sales and defence cooperation from October 1, 2026, unless President Donald Trump grants a waiver.
The decision was contained in the US State Department’s 2026 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, published on October 11, covering the period from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.
The report revealed that the decision followed allegations that Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) continue to recruit, abduct and use children in armed conflicts in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.
Nigeria was among 14 countries named in the CSPA listing, alongside Russia, Iran, South Sudan and Somalia.
Under the CSPA, governments identified on the list may face restrictions on International Military Education and Training, Foreign Military Financing, Excess Defence Articles, certain peacekeeping assistance and licences for direct commercial sales of military equipment.
The report stated that the restrictions would take effect from October 1, 2026, subject to a presidential waiver, an applicable exception or reinstatement of assistance under the law.
The designation comes amid ongoing security cooperation between Nigeria and the US, including reported joint counterterrorism operations in the country’s North-East and the formalisation of a bilateral 2026 Defence Cooperation Roadmap.
The report identified Boko Haram and ISWAP as armed groups responsible for recruiting and using children as young as 12 in conflict-related activities.
According to the State Department, the groups use children as cooks, domestic workers, spies, porters, messengers, bodyguards, checkpoint guards, combatants, and some are forced to act as suicide bombers.
The report said the children were subjected to physical and sexual abuse, as well as forced drug use, in operations across Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
It added that the groups continued to abduct thousands of women and girls in northern Nigeria and exploit them through forced labour, domestic servitude, sexual slavery and forced marriage.
It also alleged that the group forced girls who refused to marry its members to become suicide bombers.
The report raised concerns about the treatment of victims after their rescue, alleging that government authorities in some cases compelled victims of forced marriage, including trafficking survivors, to return to their Boko Haram husbands at demobilisation centres in Borno State.
Beyond insurgent groups, the report said criminal gangs in southern Nigeria recruited children for forced criminal activities, including kidnapping and robbery, and exploited them in sex trafficking. It also cited forced labour in agriculture and mining linked to criminal gangs in the North-West.
The report said Nigeria had failed to meet the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking for the 15th consecutive year, despite some improvements in funding and international cooperation.
It raised concerns about the absence of prosecutions involving government officials allegedly complicit in trafficking crimes, adding that government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees allegedly complicit in trafficking crimes, provide details, other actions taken against complicit officials from previous years.
It added that corruption and official complicity remained significant concerns, citing reports that some law enforcement officers, military personnel and other government officials committed trafficking offences, accepted bribes to facilitate trafficking or obstructed investigations.
During the reporting period, Nigerian authorities investigated 1,341 trafficking cases involving 1,367 suspects. The cases comprised 589 sex trafficking investigations, 301 forced labour investigations and 451 cases classified under other or unspecified categories.
Of the cases reported, 94 resulted in prosecutions, while 97 traffickers were convicted.
The US acknowledged that most convicted offenders received prison sentences of at least one year. It also commended increased collaboration between Nigerian authorities and foreign governments on trafficking investigations, including operations across West Africa and Southeast Asia in partnership with INTERPOL.
The report documented a sharp decline in the number of trafficking victims who received government-supported assistance during the reporting period.
Although authorities identified 2,004 victims, including 893 victims of sex trafficking and 1,111 victims of forced labour, only 675 received government-supported assistance, compared with 2,058 victims who received assistance in the preceding reporting period.
The State Department also criticised conditions in shelters operated by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
It said NAPTIP’s closed-shelter policy restricted residents’ freedom of movement, including children’s access to school. The report further alleged that access to some protection services was tied to victims’ willingness to cooperate with law enforcement proceedings.
Adult victims who declined shelter accommodation were reportedly not offered alternative services, while only one dedicated non-governmental organisation shelter was available for adult male trafficking survivors.
The report also identified gaps in Nigeria’s efforts to prevent labour trafficking, including the absence of a prohibition on worker-paid recruitment fees and a lack of reported civil and criminal accountability measures against labour recruiters involved in fraudulent recruitment.
It also said the government did not provide specialised training on child labour and human trafficking to labour inspectors or anti-trafficking training to diplomatic personnel.
The State Department highlighted the activities of foreign criminal networks that allegedly lure people to Nigeria with promises of employment, confine them in rented properties and force them to participate in organised online scams.
It further alleged that Russian authorities fraudulently recruited Nigerians to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war.
The report criticised Nigeria’s Ministry of Education for helping promote Russia’s Alabuga Start programme despite what it described as warning signs. The programme has faced scrutiny over allegations concerning the recruitment and exploitation of foreign workers.
The State Department additionally expressed concern that North Korean nationals working in Nigeria might be operating under exploitative conditions indicative of forced labour.
On “baby factories”, the report described the operations as a documented part of Nigeria’s trafficking landscape, particularly in the South. Such facilities are often disguised as orphanages, maternity homes or religious centres, where women are allegedly held against their will, raped and forced to give birth to children who are subsequently sold.
Despite the concerns, the report acknowledged increased Nigerian government allocations for anti-trafficking efforts.
Funding for victim services rose from N128 million to N233 million, while prevention spending increased from N58.8 million to N245 million.
The government also coordinated the repatriation of 428 Nigerians exploited abroad, secured restitution for 14 victims as part of criminal sentences and maintained anti-trafficking task forces in 23 states.
Nigeria remains a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking. According to the report, the country last attained the top Tier 1 ranking in 2011 and has since moved between Tier 1, Tier 2 and the Tier 2 Watch List in successive assessments.
The 2026 CSPA listing also includes Afghanistan, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Iran, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen, among other countries identified by the US as having significant child-soldier recruitment concerns.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.