3 Million North-East Children need Emergency Education Support

According to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) the humanitarian crisis ignited in the North-east Nigeria by the protracted insurgency has left three million children needing emergency education support. The Deputy Director of UNICEF, Justin Forsyth, disclosed this on September 29 while speaking to journalists in Maiduguri after an assessment tour of Borno State. Mr. Forsyth lamented that 57 per cent of schools in Borno alone are shut due to the crisis, even as the new school year has begun, adding that across the North-east, over 2,295 teachers have been killed and 19,000 others displaced since the crisis erupted eight years ago. With almost 1,400 schools destroyed and the majority still unable to open because of extensive damage or because of their location in as yet unsafe areas, Forsyth said that the scale of the crisis exceeds UNICEF’s capabilities and requires the collaboration of all stakeholders including governments and international aid agencies. “Children in North-east Nigeria are living through so much horror.” He said. “In addition to devastating malnutrition, violence and an outbreak of cholera, the attacks on schools is in danger of creating a lost generation of children, threatening their and the country’s future.”