More than 14,000 schools have had to close across West and Central Africa due to violence and insecurity, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA has reported.
OCHA said that by June this year, 2.8 million children – including many who are displaced – had been left without access to education, from Mali in the west to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the east.
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Latest aid assessments indicate a volatile humanitarian situation in the region with security incidents affecting education rising a startling 103 per cent from March to June, compared with the start of the year.
Numbers increasing
The UN aid office also reported a slight increase in the number of schools closing from March to June, compared with the previous three-month period, and a small additional number of internally displaced people and refugees – adding to pressure on services.
OCHA highlighted that a “huge” lack of funding continues to hamper the humanitarian response. It said that only around a quarter of children in affected areas had access to education in the latest period under review, compared with one in two earlier in the year.
Fanning the flames
The Special Rapporteur stressed that these attacks were conducted with impunity, and in some cases, appear to have been encouraged by public statements from high-ranking Government officials.
“Government officials and members of the ruling party publicly smearing human rights defenders as enemies of the people continues to be a major problem in Georgia,” she said.
“These statements encourage and legitimise attacks against human rights defenders, and in the Georgian context, it appears increasingly clear this is what they are intended to do.”
Special Rapporteurs are appointed to monitor and report on specific country situations or thematic issues worldwide.
They are not UN staff and are independent from any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and do not receive a salary for their work.
