Auteur : Hamidou Dia
Author: Global coalition to protect education from attack
Site of the Publication : GCPEA
Type of the publication: Briefing paper
Date of the publication: September 2020
Attacks on education in the central Sahel
GCPEA has identified an alarming number of attacks on education in the Central Sahel over recent years. Between 2015 and 2019, GCPEA collected over 430 reported incidents of attacks on education in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. According to GCPEA’s Education under Attack 2020 report, in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, armed groups who oppose state-administered, French-language education explicitly targeted government schools, most commonly by burning and looting educational facilities and threatening, abducting, or killing teachers. In Burkina Faso, Human Rights Watch found that attacks often occurred when students were in class, but that students were not typically the targets.
Though perpetrators of these attacks on education rarely claim responsibility, affiliates of armed groups such as the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), and Ansarul Islam committed violence against civilians and civilian infrastructure in the region. State forces and non-state armed groups also used dozens of schools for military purposes, including as campgrounds and temporary bases in the region, according to GCPEA research.
Attacks on education in the Central Sahel : January-July 2020
Reports indicated that attacks on education continued in 2020, despite school closures between late March and May due to Covid-19. Over 90 incidents of attacks on education occurred in the first 7 months of 2020, appearing to occur at a similar rate to the previous year, according to GCPEA data. Burkina Faso experienced the highest number of reported attacks on education in the region in the first seven months of 2020, with over 40 reported incidents, including the arson and looting of schools and abduction, threats, or killing of teachers; of these incidents, nearly half took place in June and July.
In Mali, GCPEA identified 31 reported incidents of attacks on education in 2020, 27 of which occurred in June when schools reopened for exams. In June, the Education Cluster also collected reports of almost 500 threats made against teachers and schools in Mali.9 In Niger, GCPEA identified 15 reported attacks on education between January and March 2020, and only two reported incidents in May and June 2020.
Challenges to monitoring and reporting due to Covid-19
Heightened insecurity, reduced field capacity due to public health measures, and school closures may have caused delays or gaps in monitoring and reporting of attacks on education. This may partly explain the relative reduction in numbers of incidents reported in April and May 2020. In addition, since armed groups in the Central Sahel region frequently target teachers while at work and burn and loot schools to discourage attendance, their disuse during Covid-19 may have weakened their utility as targets in conflict, also potentially explaining the lower numbers of reported attacks.
As monitoring and reporting resumes in the region, GCPEA anticipates increased recording and verification of attacks on education and military use of schools, including retroactive reporting of incidents which may have occurred during Covid-19 closures. The actual numbers of attacks on schools are likely higher than those reported in this briefing.
Reports indicated that attacks on education continued in 2020, despite school closures between late March and May due to Covid-19. Over 90 incidents of attacks on education occurred in the first 7 months of 2020, appearing to occur at a similar rate to the previous year, according to GCPEA data. Burkina Faso experienced the highest number of reported attacks on education in the region in the first seven months of 2020, with over 40 reported incidents, including the arson and looting of schools and abduction, threats, or killing of teachers; of these incidents, nearly half took place in June and July
Resurging attacks as schools and universities reopen
Emerging evidence suggests that attacks resumed as schools began to reopen in the Central Sahel. For example, in Niger, the UN reported that armed group members threatened two secondary schools in Tillabéri region only two weeks after schools reopened on June 1, 2020; these threats led to the schools’ immediate closures. In response, the regional Department of Education moved 80 affected secondary students to a secure area to study and take final exams.
In Burkina Faso, local and international media sources reported that armed assailants burned at least 18 schools in June and July 2020, after they had reopened, looting canteens before setting fire to school buildings in two cases.
In Niger and Burkina Faso, prior to Covid-19 school closures, reports often indicated that school canteens were pillaged during attacks. This may indicate that when schools reopen, their restocked food stores and provisions may render them vulnerable to attacks.
In Mali, armed groups reportedly attacked 27 middle schools after the government re-opened them for exams in June 2020, with the majority of incidents occurring in Mopti region.18 In one reported incident in Niafunke, Timbuktu region, unidentified armed assailants allegedly burned a school director’s office and student materials on June 5, 2020, and warned against students returning to school, according to ACLED. The report did not specify whether the school remained open following the attack.
Implications for reopening schools and universities in the central Sahel
Emerging evidence suggests that as schools and universities in the Central Sahel reopen after Covid-19-related closures, attacks are likely to continue at a rate similar to early 2020. Governments in the region should be aware that fewer reports of attacks during Covid-19 closures may not indicate a reduced threat of attack. In fact, they should begin preparations now for safe, inclusive, gender, and age-responsive returns to school. Previous patterns of attacks on education in the region can inform response.
GCPEA has found that while attacks on education have subsided during summer holidays in several parts of the region, armed groups re-escalated campaigns against education at the beginning of the new school year. For example, GCPEA identified 12 attacks on education in Mali in October 2019 coinciding with the first weeks of the academic year.
Incident reports described the attacks as warnings against the reopening of schools; no attacks were recorded during the school holidays.20 However, closing schools has not necessarily prevented attacks from continuing in affected areas of the Central Sahel. Burkina Faso, for instance, had the highest numbers of both school closures and attacks on education in the region in 2019 As a new school year approaches in October 2020, Central Sahel governments must carefully plan to safely reopen schools in areas of insecurity where students, teachers, and schools remain at an elevated risk of attack.
Where insecurity continues to prevent schools from reopening, the efforts of governments and partners to advance distance learning should be continued and strengthened to ensure affected students continue learning. Finally, non-state armed groups perpetrating attacks in the Central Sahel region operate across borders and use similar tactics to similar effects in the three countries. School reopening campaigns provide an opportune moment to share good practices to prevent and respond to attacks in an age and gender-responsive way and to strengthen regional approaches to protecting education and monitoring and reporting.
Better ensuring safe education in the Central Sahel
The governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have taken positive steps toward protecting education, including by endorsing and implementing the Safe Schools Declaration. Among other steps, the Ministry of Education and the Safe Schools Technical Committee in Mali issued a letter to the Ministry of Defence asking them to respect the spirit of the Guidelines while schools were closed due to the pandemic and not use schools for military purposes. In Burkina Faso, meanwhile, the Minister of Education announced in May 2020 that Covid-19-related distance learning would extend to students affected by conflict.23 By implementing the recommendations in this briefing paper, governments, donors, and international humanitarian and development actors can better ensure the safety of students and educators in the Central Sahel during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.