Fleeing violence, Niger pupils return to school

Ouallam, Niger (AFP):

Hundreds of schoolchildren have begun attending school in the town of Ouallam in southwestern Niger, a region that for five years was plagued by attacks unleashed by the ISIS and groups linked with Al-Qaeda.

The pupils come from 18 villages near Mali whose inhabitants fled to the relative safety of Ouallam in 2021 after terrorist killings that also forced the closure of schools.

Some 17,000 pupils have already re-entered the school system and another 55,300 are set to follow suit, enrolling in around 20 centres for displaced children across southwestern Niger, the government says.

When they first arrived at the new centres, many children showed “signs of distress and trauma, others were very aggressive”, said education official Morou Chaibou.

He spoke of how some pupils recounted harrowing memories — including seeing their parents being shot.

Adamou Dari, the regional director of the centres, said they also offered the children psychological and social support to give them some stability after their traumatic experience.

Harlem Desir of the International Rescue Committee, who recently visited the site for displaced people in Ouallam, said impoverished families often put their children to work or marry their daughters at a young age.

Chaibou warned that neglected children could become prime recruitment targets for the very terrorist groups whose depredations have left their families in such difficulties.

In 2021, Amnesty International warned that boys aged between 15 and 17 were filling the ranks of armed groups, especially the Al-Qaeda-affiliated GSIM, in the Torodi region near Burkina Faso — with the blessing of their parents.