Burkina Faso: Armed Islamists Attack Education

Young girls hide under a desk
Primary school girls lie on the floor of their classroom during an emergency attack simulation in Dori, Sahel region, Burkina Faso, February 3, 2020. By early March 2020, over 2,500 schools had closed in Burkina Faso due to the armed conflict. © 2020 Olympia De Maismont/Getty Images
Burned books outside of a damaged school building
A child views the damage at Sillaléba village primary school in Nasséré commune, Centre-Nord region, Burkina Faso, after an attack in April 2019. Attackers started fires in three classrooms, burned school materials, damaged five motorcycles, and stole three motorcycles and a computer. “We returned to try and put out the fire, because the desks were still burning—but I wasn’t able to save a single class document,” a teacher said.   © 2019 Harouna Sawadogo
Armed men pose in front of a burning school building
Images from a video circulated on social media in early 2019 depict the burning of a school by armed Islamists in Burkina Faso. Assailants in the video “identified themselves as ‘soldiers of the Islamic State in Burkina Faso and Mali,’” according to the security research group MENASTREAM.
Satellite image of a school
Satellite analysis by the security research group MENASTREAM (at left) suggests that images from a video depicting armed Islamists burning a school, circulated in 2019, shows an October 19, 2017 attack on a school in Tem, in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region.     © 2017 Héni Nsaibia/ MENASTREAM
Burned documents on a teacher's desk
Burned academic materials on a teacher’s desk in Minima village primary school, Centre-Nord region, Burkina Faso, following an attack by armed Islamists on May 2, 2019. “They broke the [door to the school’s] office and set fire to the notebooks, the students’ homework, records, documents—everything,” said the principal, Noufou Yampa. “There are no longer any records for the Minima school.” June 13, 2019. © 2019 Noufou Yampa
Exterior of a destroyed building
The ruins of the administrative building of a public primary school in Djibo, Sahel region, Burkina Faso, detonated by an explosive by presumed armed Islamists on January 31, 2019. “I went and saw the whole roof gone, all the tin sheets on the ground. The building was torn apart,” said a local resident. The school has remained closed since the attack.   © 2019 Minute.BF
A man holds an IED fragment
A gendarme holds a piece of an improvised explosive device (IED), which was set off during an attack on April 15, 2019 on Nebkieta Private High School in Pissila, Centre-Nord region, Burkina Faso. The explosion damaged equipment, shattered windows, and caused the ceiling to fall down in the computer room. © 2019 Joseph Ouedraogo
Two handwritten notes in French
During a November 2018 attack on a middle school in Toulfé village, in Burkina Faso’s Nord region, armed men arrived while students were in class, beat five school employees, and set a fire in an office. The men gave the victims a note “to transmit to the Burkinabè authorities,” a survivor said. The note reads, in French: “Ansaroul Islam forbids school in the province of Soum and the province of Loroum. After this warning, if we find a teacher teaching we will kill him. Democracy barred.”   (c) 2018 Private
Young student's in a classroom
A student responds to a teacher’s question in an overcrowded classroom at a public primary school in Kaya, Centre-Nord region, Burkina Faso. In January 2020, the school had 748 students, including 113 displaced students. “Each day, the displaced students come... we don’t refuse enrollment, but if there isn’t any space they can’t start,” the principal said. © 2020 Lauren Seibert/Human Rights Watch
Young students in a classroom
Students sit crammed up to five at desks meant for two, in overcrowded classes of up to 125 students, at a primary school in Kaya, a town hosting tens of thousands of displaced people in Centre-Nord region, Burkina Faso. January 29, 2020. © 2020 Lauren Seibert/Human Rights Watch
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