1. Home
  2. West Africa
  3. Nigeria
  • News

Flogging sentence reduced, deferred

A flogging sentence handed down by an Islamic court in northern Nigeria to an unmarried teenage mother for premarital sex has been reduced from 180 to 100 strokes of the cane, AFP reported on Saturday.

The news agency reported that the sentence, handed down in September by a Sharia court in the northern state of Zamfara, would only be carried out if medical tests on the 17-year-old confirmed that she was fit to take the punishment. The teenager had a baby in December.


This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join