Armed groups stop children going to school in Central African Republic
Children in conflicts, Education in emergencies
Children at a school in the CAR capital Bangui
Thousands of children in Central African Republic are being prevented from starting the academic year by armed groups which are occupying schools and installing barriers nearby, the United Nations has said.
Children across the country returned to class last week butinsecurity in some areas outside the capital Bangui hasdisrupted the start of the school year and stopped 10,000 pupilsfrom resuming their education, according to the UN children鶹APPsagency UNICEF.
Central African Republic has been beset by violence betweenmainly Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian anti-balaka militiassince the rebels ousted the then president in early 2013.
鶹APPSchools are not part of the conflict, they have nopolitical affiliation,鶹APP said Donaig Le Du, chief ofcommunications for UNICEF in CAR.
鶹APPNo child should be prevented from going to school byconflict,鶹APP she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
Students taking their exams at a Bangui school in 2014
The country鶹APPs UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA, this weekcalled on armed groups to leave the schools they are occupying,and said it would use force to remove them if necessary.
One in five primary schools, around 400, are closed and athird of children are not in class 鶹APP with displacement, a lackof teachers, and insecurity to blame, according to UNICEF.
The conflict has forced almost a million people 鶹APP a fifth ofthe population 鶹APP to flee their homes, leaving the impoverishednation divided along ethnic and religious lines.
Former prime minister Faustin-Archange Touadera won apresidential election in February that was meant to help thecountry emerge from its bloody past. However, rebels and militiafighters still stalk much of the nation outside of the capital.
Seleka rebels this month killed 26 villagers in the villageof Ndomete, not far from the town of Kaga-Bandoro, about 220 miles north of Bangui, in the country鶹APPs worst bloodshed inrecent months, a spokesman for the presidency said.
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