A local Nigerian government launches a plan to send 7,000 victims of Boko Haram terror to school

30 Aug. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The government of Borno state in northeast Nigeria has launched an ambitious plan to enroll some 7,000 school-age orphans who lost their parents and were forced from their homes by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

So far, around 4,230 children have already been enrolled in a massive schooling plan in centers in the municipalities of Monguno, Kukawa, Marte and Guzamala. According to the governor of Borno, Babagana Zulum, the minors are victims of the thirteen years that Boko Haram operated in the region.

“We are here in Monguno for the sole purpose of enrolling your children and wards in the schools of the four affected municipalities,” Governor Zulum told the surviving parents and guardians of these children.

Zulum has recalled that children between the ages of six and thirteen were enrolled in primary and secondary schools before they were forced to leave their communities due to terrorist attacks.

Since then, thousands of children have been living in refugee centers in Monguno town for the past seven years. This week’s is the third mass registration of orphaned and displaced children carried out by the Zulum Administration, according to the Nigerian newspaper ‘The Guardian’.

Since 2019, the violence of Boko Haram terrorism has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions not only in northeastern Nigeria, but also millions from neighboring countries. Between 2014 and 2017, the jihadist group intensified its attacks on schools and educational centers, also kidnapping hundreds of minors.