Burkina Faso: in schools, the feeling of insecurity is prolonging

In Burkina Faso, still no news of the kidnapped teacher on Thursday in the northern part of the country. He was in the Bouro school in Nassoumbou commune, about 30 kilometers from Djibo when he was abducted by armed men who fired gun shot into the air chanting “Allah Akbar”.

The pressures and threats on schools in the Sahel region of northern Burkina Faso are frequent.

In this region, more than one hundred schools are closed. The two affected provinces are those of Soum and those of Oudalan. Since the start of the school year in September, two to three attacks take place each month in these regions.

Armed men usually arrive by motorbike, burst into the yard and verbally threaten the teachers. This week, the attackers went further. In one school, they kidnapped a teacher and killed a student. In another, they grabbed all the teaching material before burning it.

In the face of growing insecurity, UNICEF and its Burkinabe partners are mobilizing. For several months, they have set up a support program for schools, teachers and pupils, as explained by Karim Sankara, administrator of the Child Protection and Education Program for UNICEF in Dori: “Schools, most of the time, are not schools that are fenced, So anyone can go inside the school. The idea is to secure schools with people to prevent for example the passage or also reinforce the safety of teachers. To be able to cope with their own stress”.

Due to insecurity, 21% of schools in the Soum and 17% of those in the Oudalan region are closed. The feeling of insecurity has been lasting. Some schools have not opened their doors since September 2017, a situation that directly affects 11,000 students, according to data collected by UNICEF.