By Kenneth Onuoha
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has said attacks on educational facilities are a grave violation of children’s right.
UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Peter Hawkins, who lauded the release of 344 boys abducted from Government Boys Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, said last week’s attack directly targeting children in the middle of the night, in a place where they should feel safe, was an outrage/
Stressing that schools should be safe, Hawkins said, “Children should never be the target of attacks, and yet, far too often in Nigeria, they are precisely the victims of attacks on their schools. This incident is a disturbing reminder of the heavy toll that violence takes on civilians in North West Nigeria, including children. No cause justifies attacks against children and schools. Such cruel disregard for humanity must come to an end.”
Hawkins further said such attacks deprived children of the right to education and that they made children fearful of going to the classroom, and parents afraid to send their children to school.
“Schools must be safe places to study and develop, and learning cannot become a perilous endeavour,” he emphasised.