Hundreds of Nigerian schools reopen despite fear of Boko Haram attacks

Nigerian children at UNICEF-supported learning centre in Dalori camp in Maiduguri Picture: UNICEF/Esiebo

Hundreds of聽schools in northeast Nigeria have reopened for the first time in聽a year and a half 国产视频� but many teachers and pupils are reluctant聽to return because of persistent violence in the region.

Almost 450 schools have reopened in Borno state since聽October, more than 18 months after education was halted in the聽wake of an attack by Boko Haram militants on a boarding school聽in neighbouring Yobe state in which they killed 59 students.

Some schools in Adamawa and Borno states are doubling the聽number of classes to provide education for people uprooted by聽the conflict as well as for local children, according to the聽United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Displaced teachers across the region have volunteered to聽teach and many children who fled violence in remote rural areas聽have gone to school for the first time, the UN children国产视频檚 fund聽UNICEF said.

国产视频淧rioritising education is absolutely essential if we are to聽avoid losing the next generation to more poverty, hopelessness聽and the risk of radicalisation,国产视频� said Toby Lanzer, UN聽humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel.

Borno is the birthplace of the six-year insurgency waged by聽Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which kidnapped 276 girls聽from a secondary school in the village of Chibok in April 2014.

A regional offensive by Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon聽earlier this year drove Boko Haram from much of the territory it聽held in northern Nigeria. But the militants have since struck聽back with a renewed wave of deadly raids and suicide bombings.

More than 1200 schools have been attacked in northeast聽Nigeria and hundreds of teachers and pupils have been killed by聽bomb blasts, raising fears among communities about the safety of聽resuming education, according to UNICEF.

国产视频淢any parents are reluctant to send their children 国产视频撀爀specially girls 国产视频� to school国产视频� even some teachers are afraid of聽going to work due to the targeted attacks, threats of attacks or聽general insecurity,国产视频� said Eva Ahlen from UNICEF in Nigeria.

The United Nations is working with the Nigerian government聽to make schools safer, train teachers and offer basic education聽to those staying in camps and with host families, where nine in聽10 of Nigeria国产视频檚 2.2 million internally displaced people are聽living.

Even before the conflict in the northeast, Nigeria had the聽highest number of out-of-school children in the world, more than聽10 million, according to OCHA.

Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm of聽Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women国产视频檚 rights,聽trafficking, corruption and climate change.聽