In Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, insecurity and forced displacement are on the rise and the figures are frightening: nearly 13 million internally displaced persons and 1.5 million refugees are registered, more than 55% of whom are children. In addition, at the beginning of 2022, nearly 12,000 schools were closed due to insecurity in these countries, forcing more than one million children to interrupt their education.
In this context, thousands of children, especially vulnerable ones such as refugees and IDPs, are exposed to multiple protection risks and may never return to school.
The GCPEA’s report Education under Attack 2022 covers attacks on schools, universities, students, and educators from January 2020 to December 2021. It profiles 28 conflict-affected countries (almost 1/3 in WCA) with a systematic pattern of attacks on education and military use of educational facilities and identifies trends in attacks on education.
In the WCA countries, nearly 2,000 attacks on schools and students, teachers or other education personnel have been reported over the period 2020-2021. GCPEA also identified reported incidents of the military use of schools, as well as incidents of sexual violence and child recruitment at, or on the way to or from, school.
Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees