UNICEF Remembers Chibok Girls 8 Years After, Decries Current Spate Of Abduction
BY WILLIAM ATTAH, GOMBE – The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), has decried the recurring spate of abductions of students in Nigeria after the abduction of 276 Chibok school girls by Boko Haram fighters on April 14, 2014.
A statement by UNICEF’s Communication Specialist, Samuel Kaalu, said it is even more worried over the increasing spate of the abductions of the children in the last two years in the Northwest and North central Nigeria.
According to UNICEF; “Since December 2020, 1,436 school children and 17 teachers have been abducted from schools, and 16 school children lost their lives.
“A total of 11, 536 schools were closed since December 2020 due to these abductions and security issues”.
UNICEF further said that the school closures have impacted the education of approximately 1.3 million children in the 2020/21 academic year.
It also said; “The interruption of learning contributes to gaps in children’s knowledge and skills and may lead to the loss of approximately 3.4 billion USD in these children’s lifetime earnings. This, risks to further perpetuate cycles of poverty and inequality”.
The UN Children’s agency therefore called on the Nigerian Government to immediately take action to make schools safe for more girls to enroll and complete their education.
The statement quoted Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria as saying; “Unsafe schools, occasioned by attacks on schools and abduction of students, are reprehensible, a brutal violation of the rights of the victims to education, and totally unacceptable.
“Their occurrences cut short the futures and dreams of the affected students. Attacks on learning institutions render the learning environment insecure and discourage parents and caregivers from sending their wards to schools, while the learners themselves become fearful of the legitimate pursuit of learning.
“The invisible harm school attacks inflict on the victims’ mental health is incalculable and irredeemable.
“Girls have particularly been targeted, exacerbating the figures of out-of-school children in Nigeria, 60 percent of whom are girls. It is a trajectory which must be halted, and every hand in Nigeria must be on deck to ensure that learning in Nigeria is not a dangerous enterprise for any child, particularly for girls,” Hawkins said.
It noted that even though Nigeria has ratified the Safe Schools Declaration, schools and learners are not sufficiently protected.
UNICEF therefore said that unless greater attention is given to protecting children, teachers and schools, they will continue to come under attack.
It stressed that urgent, coordinated action is needed to safeguard the right to learn for every child in Nigeria.
