Amnesty International has condemned the killing of boarding school students in Yobe state on Saturday by an armed Islamist group saying, “such attacks violate the right to life and undermine the right to education for thousands of children in northern Nigeria.
“The attacks must stop immediately,” Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Africa Lucy Freeman said in statement yesterday. The statement urged the government to prevent attacks on schools and to protect children’s lives as well as their right to education.
“The protection of children’s lives is paramount, and the Nigerian government has a duty to ensure that the country’s educational sector is not further threatened by the killing and intimidation of students and teachers and the destruction of school buildings,” Lucy Freeman added.
Amnesty International urged the Nigerian authorities to investigate the attacks and bring those responsible to justice in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty.
It noted that secondary schools have been ordered to close in Yobe following the pre-dawn attack on Government Secondary School in Mamudo, near Potiskum, in which 29 students and one teacher were killed and buildings set alight.
Amnesty said that according to information it received, dozens of children who fled to the bush after Saturday’s attack are still unaccounted for.
It claimed that since January 2013, around 30 schools have been reportedly burnt, damaged or destroyed by suspected Boko Haram members in the neighbouring state of Borno alone.
The attacks have ranged from killing teachers in full view of school children to destroying school buildings. Many schools have reportedly been forced to close as a result of the attacks, by Boko Haram members who believed that “Western education is forbidden”.
It noted that the destruction and damage of school infrastructure and facilities grossly reduces the availability of and access to education for many children in northern Nigeria where sectarian violence continues.
“When education institutions are targeted or attacked, the damage and resultant consequences can be major and far-reaching. Access to basic education in a country where education is mostly seen as a privilege, requires that proper structures and services are in place and that students can access adequate books and materials,” said Lucy Freeman.
The Nigerian government is obliged under the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child to which Nigeria is a state party to “take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools.”
