Terrorism strikes education in the African Sahel region

Aya Ezz

Terrorist groups in Africa’s Sahel region have targeted schools and threatened the educational process, especially with the continuing demolitions of schools and the killing of many students and teachers.

UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba has warned that attacks on schools appear to be a method of warfare, especially in the conflict-torn Sahel region.

She said in a statement to the UN Security Council on Thursday, September 10, “It seems that there is an emerging war tactic, especially in the Sahel region, where schools are specifically targeted for meeting the needs of girls.”

Gamba noted that 2,500 schools closed in Burkina Faso since last year after the increase in attacks, kidnapping of teachers, and burning of schools. In Mali, 1,260 schools were closed during the past two years after teachers were threatened and a number of them killed, as well as books being burned.

She said that the closed schools and collapsing economies generate factors that facilitate the recruitment of children, their sexual exploitation and their marriage, urging all warring parties to respect the civilian character of schools.

Education of 400,000 students disrupted

A report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on February 28, 2019 confirmed that the education of more than 400,000 children has been disrupted in various regions of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, while 10,050 teachers have been prevented from working or have been displaced by the violence.

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said that the direct attacks on schools and teachers, and even on schoolchildren, in addition to the military occupation of places of learning, are serious violations of children’s rights.

She stressed that when children miss the opportunity to go to school in times of conflict, they not only become unable to learn the skills they need to build peaceful and prosperous societies, but they also become vulnerable to appalling forms of exploitation, including sexual assault and forced recruitment into terrorist groups.

Training camps

Mohamed Ezz El-Din, a researcher specializing in African affairs, told the Reference that terrorist groups target schools for multiple reasons, the most important of which is that they use these schools as training camps for terrorist elements. They also know that schools are the only outlet for students to empty their energy, so when they are prevented from education and getting rid of energy, they will be easy prey for terrorists and easy to recruit.

Ezz El-Din confirmed that the Sahel region has been subjected to hundreds of attacks since 2017, as nearly a thousand terrorist operations have been carried out targeting schools, students and teachers.