Fighters Occupying, Looting Schools Keep Children From Their
Education
Human Rights Watch
March 23, 2017
Soldiers camping out in schools and breaking up desks for firewood is common in
parts of the Central African Republic. According to a United Nations report
from November, 20 percent of the country’s schools are not operational, many
because of misuse by armed groups. Some students were forced out of school four
years ago, when the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels cut a bloody swath through the
country and seized the capital. Thousands more children stopped going to school
in the ensuing years, as Christiananimist anti-balaka fighters ousted the
Seleka, torching whole Muslim communities and displacing more than 860,000
people. Many of these children may never resume their studies, despite hopes
kindled when a new government took over a year ago. Researcher Lewis Mudge
talks to Amy
Braunschweiger about his latest research and what a lost generation could mean
for the future of one of the world’s poorest countries
