Child soldiers: Washington adds Nigeria to its 2026 list, along with five other African countries

The United States has added Nigeria to the 2026 list of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA), published in the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report, the Nigerian daily Premium Times reported on October 13, 2026. Under Section 402 of this law, Washington designates governments whose armed forces, police, other security forces, or state-supported armed groups recruit or use child soldiers.

Fourteen countries appear on the list: Nigeria, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan for Africa, in addition to Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, Russia, Rwanda, Venezuela, and Yemen. The decisions cover the period from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.

What the designation triggers

The inclusion paves the way for restrictions on a portion of American military aid: International Military Education and Training (IMET) programs, Foreign Military Financing (FMF), and the transfer of excess defense articles. It also affects licenses for direct commercial sales of military equipment. According to Premium Times, these restrictions can apply starting October 1, unless a waiver or exception is granted by President Donald Trump.

For the Nigerian military, which has been engaged for over fifteen years against the jihadist insurgency in the Northeast, the stakes are concrete: access to American training, funding, and equipment.

A list that does not claim the army recruits children

The nuance is important and the Nigerian newspaper highlights it: the designation does not establish that Nigeria's army or security services recruit or use child soldiers. The CSPA also covers armed groups, and the country's Northeast has for years faced the abduction and recruitment of children by Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), for both combat and support roles.

The American law defines a child soldier as any person under 18 years of age forcibly recruited into state forces, or used in hostilities by armed forces distinct from a national army. The definition encompasses support functions—cooks, porters, messengers, medics, guards—and victims of sexual exploitation. To establish its lists, the State Department says it relies on its own agents, United Nations agencies, international organizations, civil society, and local and international media.

No response from Abuja for now

No official reaction from the Nigerian government had been reported by Premium Times at the time of publication. The question posed to Nigeria, as to the five other listed African states, is that of the control of its own armies and auxiliary forces: six countries on the continent find themselves judged by an American law regarding a reality—children torn from school and sent to the front—whose primary victims are African.