Seven children seized from the Du Merci Centres for vulnerable children in Kaduna and Kano States in December 2019 remain in the custody of the Kano State authorities, despite a meeting convened at the Kano State Ministry of Justice on 15 April, ostensibly to finalise their return to the care of their adoptive parents in accordance with a 2025 consent judgement.
On 9 April the co-founders of the Du Merci Centres, Professor Solomon and Mrs Mercy Tarfa, were informed their presence was requested by the Attorney General of Kano State at a meeting on 15 April for the handover of the seven surviving children. While the professor was unable to attend due to ill health, Mrs Tarfa attended the meeting, accompanied by the family lawyer, their eldest son and an elder daughter who had been released in 2025 from the government orphanage where the children have been held since 2019.
Despite being told to be at the venue by 10am for the handover, the fractious meeting that ensued commenced after 10am, and was filmed by local media invited by the authorities. During their six years at the government facility, all of the children experienced consistent pressure to convert, to which the youngest eight were most vulnerable. According to information received by CSW, the children who succumbed to this pressure were extremely emotional during the meeting, having been misinformed earlier that if they returned to the Du Merci Centre they would be killed, either for having converted to Islam, or in the event they reverted to Christianity.
A document stating that the children had been returned to the Tarfas, and bearing the signatures of the Attorney General, the Commissioner for Women’s Affairs and Social Development, the Solicitor General, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry for Women’s Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Tarfa, her lawyer and the Tarfas’ son, was finalised during the meeting. However, the commissioner reportedly left the proceedings before they ended, taking all the children with her.
The letter asserting the release of the children also stated that the body of 13-year-old David Solomon Tarfa, who died on 28 January 2026 after the orphanage’s authorities failed to provide him with urgently needed medical attention, was not being released due to the Coroner’s Inquest into his death. The inquest began on 8 April, over two months after his passing, and has reportedly concluded, although the results are yet to be made public. Following David’s death the Kano State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development and the Attorney General of Kano had filed, but had subsequently withdrawn, a suit at the Juvenile Court seeking an order directing the orphanage to release his body to them after a post-mortem for burial in accordance with Islamic rites.
Twenty-seven children were seized on 25 and 31 December 2019 from the Du Merci Centres in Kano and Kaduna States by officers from the police force and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), during raids in which Professor Tarfa was arrested on spurious charges. The children were subsequently placed in the Nassarawa orphanage, where they experienced mistreatment, ostracism, neglect and pressure to convert. Those found to have already reached the age of majority were eventually released, leaving 16 minors in the government-run facility.
Eight of the older remaining children were released on 13 August 2025, after one began experiencing mental health challenges. However, the eight youngest were obliged to remain at the orphanage ‘for safe keeping’ pending a review by the Attorney General of Kano State of the 2025 consent judgement, and repeated deferrals of legal proceedings continued to hinder their return. For example, in the fifth deferral in five months, the Tarfas’ lawyer was informed on 2 April that the case had been adjourned indefinitely because the presiding judge was observing Hajj in Mecca.
By holding on to the children the Kano State authorities continue to defy the consent judgement delivered by a Kano State High Court, to which they had previously agreed, that had stipulated the formal return of all of the children to the Tarfas’ care on or before 19 March 2025. CSW was informed that among the issues of contention during the meeting was the refusal of the authorities to hand over the four eldest children on the grounds that three were now nearly 18 years of age.
CSW’s CEO Scot Bower said: ‘CSW is incensed at the latest injustice the Kano State authorities have subjected the Tarfa family to. This week’s meeting should have finally brought an end to the six-year separation of seven children from the only parents most have ever known, but has instead traumatised them further as the authorities appear to have used every machination to prevent their return by promoting false narratives. The Kano State authorities have disregarded the High Court ruling for far too long, and justice must not be delayed any further. CSW is calling for the urgent, immediate and unconditional return of the seven children to the Tarfas’ care, the handover of David Tarfa’s body for burial in accordance with his family’s wishes, a complete end to the unacceptable harassment and effective legal persecution, and for compensation to be paid to the Tarfas and their children commensurate with the trauma that has been inflicted on them.’
Note to Editors:
- In June 2021 the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Professor Tarfa and 16 of the children had been detained arbitrarily. The Working Group called for the children’s immediate release, adding that the Tarfas and the 16 children were entitled to ‘compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.’