Thousands of schools still remain closed in Africa

While millions of students will return to school after the Easter holidays, thousands of children in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Central African Republic, DRC, Chad, Nigeria must stay at home, according to a statement from the Norwegian Refugee Council.

According to this NGO, nearly half of the schools closed in West and Central Africa are in Burkina Faso. More than six thousand schools have been closed since May 2022.

Tom Peyre-Costa, regional adviser for West and Central Africa at the Norwegian Refugee Council, told DW that "Burkina Faso is the bad student among the bad students when it comes to education".

He added: "And it is obviously the security condition of the country that has led to this. There is also the case of occupation of schools by displaced families who had to flee their villages."

Thousands of children deprived of education

Countries affected by jihadist attacks such as Nigeria, with a hundred schools, Mali more than a thousand schools, Niger more than 800 must also see thousands of children deprived of education, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.

In Niger, the vast majority of closed schools are in the Tillabery region, in the area of the three borders with Mali and Burkina Faso.Schools for displaced children exist in Niger, for example, but this is a temporary and emergency response, according to Dorothée Thienot, UNICEF communication specialist in Niger.