Cameroon among countries with high number of attacks against education in the past two years. Report from an International Human Right Organisation
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According to Global Coalition to Protect Education in their recent report published on 1 June 2022 on their official website, the Educational sector witnessed more than 5,000 Attacks in Past 2 Years worldwide. The robust report covers the period of 202o and 2021 wherein the International Organisation dubbed ‘significant increase’ in attacks against education.
According to a 265 page report, in the more than 5000 separate attacks on education facilities, students and educators, or incidents of military use, more than 9,000 students, teachers, and academics were harmed, injured, or killed in attacks on education during armed conflict over the past two years.
Targeted attacks on students and educators were also widespread. In Nigeria, over 1,000 students or educators were reportedly abducted, injured, or killed, at least one-third of them women and girls. The rate of these attacks, many by unidentified armed groups, escalated from December 2020. Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Palestine, Somalia, and Colombia also had high numbers of students and educators threatened, abducted, injured, or killed.
According to the Executive Director of Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, “It is crucial for governments and armed groups to end attacks on education, and stop using schools and universities for military purposes,……Governments should investigate attacks and prosecute those responsible for abuses. In post-Covid-19 ‘back to school’ campaigns, they need to fully integrate students affected by attacks, expanding alternative education programs developed during the pandemic as necessary.”
Attacks on education involve armed forces and non-state armed groups bombing and burning schools and universities, and killing, injuring, raping, abducting, arbitrarily arresting, and recruiting students and educators at or near educational institutions, during armed conflict. In addition to the deaths and injuries caused by these attacks, destroyed and occupied schools upend learning, sometimes permanently, and have long-term social and economic consequences.
Explosive weapons, which were involved in one-fifth of all reported attacks on education, had particularly devastating effects, killing or injuring countless students and educators and damaging hundreds of schools and universities. In Afghanistan, attacks on schools involving explosive weapons killed or injured at least 185 students and educators, nearly all of them girls, in the first half of 2021 alone. In Palestine, air-launched and ground-launched strikes damaged a quarter of Gaza’s schools during an escalation of hostilities in May 2021.
Attacks on schools made up nearly two-thirds of all reports of attacks on education and military use collected by GCPEA, a similar proportion to the previous two years. In 2020 and 2021, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and Palestine were the countries most affected by attacks on schools, with each experiencing over 400 threatened or actual attacks.
Armed groups or armed forces also targeted schools to recruit children. In the past two years, state armed forces or armed groups reportedly recruited students from schools in Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and Yemen, while armed forces, security forces, or armed groups were reportedly responsible for sexual violence in, or on the way to or from, schools and universities in at least seven countries
This report was released on the seventh anniversary of the Safe Schools Declaration, a political commitment to protect education in armed conflict, endorsed by 114 countries. By joining the Declaration, countries commit to taking concrete steps to safeguard education, including by using the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use During Armed Conflict. Since the Declaration was opened for endorsement in 2015, governments and their partners have made tangible improvements in law and practice to protect education from attack. Over one-third of the countries profiled in the report are not signatories.
“As attacks on schools and universities, their students and educators, continue to occur in both new and protracted conflicts, the Safe Schools Declaration, on its seventh anniversary, remains a critical tool,” Nijhowne said. “All governments should endorse and implement the Declaration to save lives and safeguard the right to education for all, including those in the most dire situations of war.
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This report was released on the seventh anniversary of the Safe Schools Declaration, a political commitment to protect education in armed conflict, endorsed by 114 countries. By joining the Declaration, countries commit to taking concrete steps to safeguard education, including by using the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use During Armed Conflict. Since the Declaration was opened for endorsement in 2015, governments and their partners have made tangible improvements in law and practice to protect education from attack. Over one-third of the countries profiled in the report are not signatories.
The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), was formed in 2010 by organizations working in the fields of education in emergencies and conflict-affected contexts, higher education, protection, and international human rights and humanitarian law that were concerned about ongoing attacks on educational institutions, their students, and staff in countries affected by conflict and insecurity.
Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.
