300 male students have been rescued from an Islamic School in Nigeria, where they were being subjected to torture and sexual abuse.
The students, most of whom were children, were also being starved and were found in chains in the religious school, which are known as ‘almajiris’ in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna.
Speaking to AFP in relation to the operation a police spokesman said the boys were kept in “the most debasing and inhuman conditions in the name of teaching them the Koran and reforming them”.
Police spokesman Yakubu Sabo went on to say
“We found around 100 students including children as young as nine, in chains stuffed in a small room all in the name of reforming them and making them responsible persons,”
Seven faculty members, including the owner the school, which has been operating for 10 years were arrested in the raid.
The religious school marketed itself as a reformatory which also included supposed rehabilitation for drug addicts.
Islamic private schools are common in the Muslim majority North of Nigeria as the region is lacking many government services, including education.
The region is also home to the Islamist terrorist group ‘Boko Haram’ (Books are bad) which has plagued the region for years and in recent times pledged loyalty to the Islamic State.
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