Around 100 Niger schools close, suspend classes over militant threat: UN

Niamey, Niger | AFP | Around 100 schools have closed or suspended classes in Niger due to the threat from Islamist militants, the UN said on Thursday, in the latest warning over jihadist presence.

Western African leaders last month held regional talks on the escalating attacks by Boko Haram jihadists in the Lake Chad area, bordering Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

A UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report from Niamey said 33 schools suspended classes and 18 closed in Niger’s southwest Tillaberi region due to “threats from non-state armed groups.”

In the southeast, dozens of schools have also been shut since 2017 because of continuing Boko Haram violence close to the group’s base in Nigeria.

The UN said 44 schools remain closed because too few students have returned.

Boko Haram began a bloody insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 but has since spread into neighbouring countries prompting a regional military response.