Burkina Faso is one of many African countries plagued by Islamic terrorism. Aside from the thousands of deaths, the countries children have also been affected since many of their schools have been destroyed or forced to close.
The religion of Peace blog has cross-posted a short English-language story about the school crisis from Al Arabiya.
Note that Al Arabiya describes the terrorists as extremists or militants. These, in fact, are Islamic terrorists affiliated with ISIS and Al Qaeda. We have posted on the situation in Burkina Faso previously.
The below article from the French-language Sidwaya (Burkina Faso) is translated by Fousesquawk. It also describes the situation and is the form of an op-ed on the importance of the nation's schools in combatting terrorism.
*The reference at the end to Pr. Jacques Nanema: He is a university philosophy professor in Burkina Faso (University of Ouagadougou.)
https://www.sidwaya.info/blog/2022/01/06/sauver-lecole-du-peril-terroriste/
Saving the school from the terrorist danger
January 6, 2022
During the Council of Ministers (meeting) January 5, 2022, a point was made on the scholastic establishments affected by the phenomenon of insecurity. It emerged that 3, 280 establishments were closed nationwide due to the terrorist attacks. This represents 13.09% of the educational structures of the country. A situation that affects 511,221 pupils and 14,901 teachers. In the face of this alarming report, some measures have been taken to allow the pupils to continue their studies. Thus, 205 establishments were able to reopen, allowing 39,812 pupils and 1,099 teachers to get back to classes. In the same vein, 25 establishments have been relocated and some other initiatives have been taken to re-enroll 135,981 pupils internally displaced within 3,673 establishments across the country.
These efforts deserve to be continued in order to allow all pupils affected in their studies by the lack of security to reconnect with school. It must be said, education remains the true bulwark against all the prevailing obscurantism and the Middle Age actions of those who would lead the world into the darkness. The terrorists attack the school because they know that it is the antithesis of their heresies and their murderous madness. In blowing up the schools, the terrorists want to prevent the light from visiting the spirits so that they can succeed in their disastrous project of wanting to entangle society in obscurantism.
Resources must be mobilized at all costs to meet the challenge of education. If some have easily succumbed to the deadly sirens of terrorism, it is, in some part, due to lack of education and critical thinking. To ensure the continuity of the educational system for the good of all the children of Burkina Faso is as much an imperative as the armed fight against the forces of evil. More than the State, this challenge is for each citizen. Defending the sustainability of the school is also fighting against the roots that feed terrorism. That is why goodwill should accompany the government in its desire to keep all the children in school contributing to the efforts being made. Citizen engagement does not just consist of criticizing the leaders. It implies that each contributes, according to their ability, their building stone of articulation which maintains the unity of society and its diversity. Against all odds, the school must be saved. It should not be hostage to the terrorist obscurantists who want to impose their nihilist diktat. "The school is to society and humanity what the conscience is to every human being, an instance of reflexive, creative lucidity that can make us familiar with the excellence of our finite but reasonable condition," so well formulated by Profesor Jacques Nanema.
- Karim Badolo
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