ICC Note:

In 2013, Central African Republic first descended into conflict when the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels overthrew the Christian president. Today, according to News24, armed Muslim Seleka militants are taking over schools to construct different “bases of operation.” Around 20% of schools are not functioning. As armed groups loot the schools, both students’ and teachers’ lives are threatened. Thiernd Ouronfei, a teacher at one such school, decided he had enough. “I said he must put the kids’ desks down. They hit me in the head with a knife and I was sent to the hospital for at least a week,” he said.

03/24/2017 Central African Republic (News24) – The armed group took over the school little by little. One day when a fighter came to collect and burn the students’ desks, teacher Thiernd Ouronfei decided he’d had enough.

“I said he must put the kids’ desks down. They hit me in the head with a knife and I was sent to the hospital for at least a week,” he said. Even now, after the school in Central African Republic was liberated, parents are scared to send their children, he told The Associated Press.

Some 20% of schools in Central African Republic are not functioning, and students’ and teachers’ lives are threatened as armed groups have looted, occupied and damaged the properties in the conflict-torn country, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday.

An education is a rare opportunity for children in the impoverished country to get ahead.

“We’re talking about a lost generation. These are students aren’t going to get those years back,” said Lewis Mudge, the group’s Africa researcher and co-author of the report. “Many rebels have also been quite open that they are going to reoccupy schools during the upcoming rainy season.”

…