Schooling Crumbles as Burkina Faso Battles Militancy

A new report by Human Rights Watch sheds light on Burkina Faso’s education crisis amid a worsening security situation engulfing the country and other parts of the Sahel in recent years. Published on Tuesday, the rights group’s report warns of the “devastating impact” of armed group attacks on the children’s right to education. It estimated that since 2017 – and before the nationwide closure in March of all education facilities due to the coronavirus pandemic – more than 2,500 schools had closed in Burkina Faso, negatively impacting almost 350,000 students and more than 11,200 teachers. It also said that armed groups allied with al-Qaeda or ISIL have burned, looted and destroyed dozens of schools, intimidated students and frightened parents into keeping their children out of school, and killed, abducted or threatened scores of teachers.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA