Sahel Edition

Sahel: Three children die in school fire in Niger’s Zinder region



Posted On 6 February 2023

Number of times this article was read : 630

The North Africa Journal’s WhatsApp Group

Three children died and 11 were injured, two of them seriously, when a school made of straw and wood caught fire in central Niger on Monday, local officials said. The fire broke out in a classroom in a school in Zinder and spread swiftly, fanned by the harmattan seasonal winds, Harou Mamane, secretary general of the regional government, told AFP. “The children panicked and rushed to try to get out” but some were trapped, he said.

The landlocked Sahel country is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 189th out of 191 nations in the UN’s 2022 Human Development Index (HDI). Lacking funds, the authorities have built thousands of classrooms made from straw and wood, where children often sit on the floor as they have no desks. The government last November launched a plan to replace all these classrooms with durable and safer substitutes by 2026.

AFP

Other Articles in this Week's Issue<< Sahel: Mali expels head of the human rights division of UN’s MINUSMA missionSahel: Russia looks to deepen influence in the Sahel with foreign minister’s visit to Mali >>

Turkey: Erdogan’s Winning Strategy in Africa

Despite the wave of coups d’état in West Africa, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had close ties to the ousted regimes of Guinea, Mali, and Niger, has successfully protected his country’s interests in the region. He has done so through a strategy that combines drone diplomacy with business interests.

The Human Cost of the EU-Mauritania Migration Partnership

Since early 2024, the Mauritanian government has intensified its enforcement operations against undocumented sub-Saharan migrants in Nouakchott, Nouadhibou, and other urban centers. This campaign, which includes increased checkpoints and arrests, is a direct consequence of a bilateral agreement between Mauritania and its European partners, notably Spain.

Geopolitics: Religion, Oil, and Minerals are Now Washington’s Africa Strategy

Under Donald Trump, US Africa policy is zeroing in on oil and mineral wealth while using evangelical networks as a back channel into Central Africa — offering political cover to leaders and countering Chinese and Russian influence where Catholic voices are more...