This study examines the regulatory and developmental strategies aimed at ending child abuse in Nigeria, particularly abuses associated with organized crime, armed insurgency, terrorism, and banditry in conflict-affected regions of Northern Nigeria. The study adopted a qualitative and analytical research methodology using documentary sources, legal instruments, policy reports, and existing scholarly literature to evaluate the effectiveness of child protection frameworks, including the Child Rights Act 2003 and related institutional mechanisms.

Findings reveal that despite the existence of formal legal and institutional structures for child protection, implementation remains weak due to constitutional fragmentation, legal pluralism, corruption, insecurity, poverty, and poor inter-agency coordination. The study further establishes that insurgent and criminal groups such as Boko Haram, ISWAP, and armed bandit networks have increasingly weaponized child exploitation through school abductions, forced recruitment, trafficking, sexual violence, and attacks on educational institutions. Existing literature has focused largely on the humanitarian and security dimensions of insurgency with limited attention to the combined effects of legal fragmentation, institutional weakness, and community-based protection failures on child abuse in Nigeria.

The study concludes that military responses alone are insufficient to address child abuse within conflict environments. It recommends constitutional harmonization of child protection laws, institutional strengthening, trauma-informed rehabilitation, educational protection initiatives, and community-based security frameworks. The study contributes to scholarship on child protection, human security, legal reform, and sustainable development in fragile states.

Keywords: Child abuse, organized crime, armed insurgency, Child Rights Act, human security, Boko Haram, banditry, legal framework, Nigeria.