United
Nations Children has released disturbing figures of the number of
deaths in the north-eastern part of Nigeria owing to issues of
insurrection.
File Photo
The United Nations Children’s Fund has said that over 2,295
teachers lost their lives and 19,000 people were displaced in the
North-East since the Boko Haram insurgency started in 2009.
Also, the organisation, in a statement issued by its Deputy
Executive Director, Justin Forsyth and obtained by a Punch
correspondent, noted that over 57 per cent of schools in Borno State,
the worst-affected by the crisis, may remain closed in the 2017/2018
academic session.
The statement read, “Almost 1,400 schools have been destroyed
with the majority unable to open because of extensive damage or because
they are in areas that remain unsafe. An estimated 3 million children
are in need of emergency education support.
“Children in northeastern Nigeria are living through so much
horror. 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 countries future.
“Some children living in camps for the displaced in Borno
State, are, however, actually benefiting from education for the first
time in their lives. In the Muna Garage camp on the outskirts of
Maiduguri, for example, an estimated 90 per cent of students were
enrolled in school for the first time.
“In the three most-affected states of northeastern Nigeria,
UNICEF and partners have enrolled nearly 750,000 children in school this
year, establishing over 350 temporary learning spaces, and distributing
almost 94,000 packs of learning material that will help children to get
an education.”
The UN agency also said it has started working with partners to
rehabilitate schools and classrooms, as well as train teachers to build a
stronger education system for the future.
During a three-day visit to Maiduguri, Forsyth was said to have met
with families and children affected by the conflict who told him of
their fear and the dire conditions they faced while living under the
Boko Haram insurgents.
“To date, nearly 1 million children have been displaced by the
crisis and 450,000 children under the age of five are expected to suffer
from severe acute malnutrition this year. The use of children as human
bombs – close to 100 so far this year – has sown a climate of mistrust
among communities in the North East, and a cholera outbreak has affected
more than 3900 people, including over 2450 children.
“UNICEF’s life-saving emergency programmes in northeast Nigeria
remain underfunded. With only three months left in the year, UNICEF has
a 40 per cent finding gap in its needs for 2017,” the statement added.
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