TheCable

About 57 million children were forced out of school in 2022 by violence across West and Central Africa, a report has revealed.

According to the report, the figure represents almost a quarter of children worldwide.

Save The Children International (SCI), a charity organisation, released the report to mark the “International Day for the Protection of Schools from Attack”.

In a statement released on Friday, the organisation said insecurity across the general Sahel region has doubled the figures.

The Sahel stretches from the Atlantic Ocean eastward through northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, the bend of the Niger River in Mali, Burkina Faso, southern Niger Republic, northeastern Nigeria, south-central Chad, and Sudan.

The charity organisation said violence in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali has led to the closure of nearly 7,800 primary schools, adding that the number of closures rose 20 percent in the past year.

SCI said as of June 2023, around 1.4 million children were missing out on education and “the skills they’ll need to participate fully in their communities as adults”.

“On International Day for the Protection of Schools from Attack, Save the Children is calling on governments and stakeholders to take steps to protect children’s education in the Sahel, by supporting the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration, which is a commitment and framework to enable states to protect education in fragile contexts,” the statement said.

According to the report, as a result of the spike in insecurity, many children and teachers are too scared to attend school.

The report indicated that there have also been cases of armed groups directly attacking schools and causing damage to school buildings.

“Many children are internally displaced by the conflict and no longer have access to schooling,” the report added.

A previous report by the charity organisation had shown how a food crisis in the Sahel is also contributing to the high out-of-school rates and causing the children to starve.