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Education in Emergencies Working Group Strategy: North East Nigeria 2021-2023

Countries
Nigeria
Sources
Education Cluster
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Publication date

NORTH EAST NIGERIA
SITUATION OVERVIEW

In 2019, 7.1 million people (2.3 million girls, 1.9 million boys, 1.6 million women and 1.3 million men) needed humanitarian assistance in North East Nigeria as a result of a crisis that is now in its tenth year. The crisis, which is fundamentally a protection of civilians crisis, has largely been triggered by an ongoing regionalized armed conflict, characterized by massive and widespread abuse against civilians including killings, rape and other sexual violence, abduction, child recruitment, burning of homes, pillaging, forced displacement, arbitrary detention, and the use of explosive hazards, including in deliberate attacks on civilian targets.

1.8 million people are internally displaced, and new displacement continues due to insecurity. The crisis has impacted women, men, girls and boys, and people with special needs differently, and their vulnerabilities as well as coping mechanisms vary. Women and girls have been targeted with rape, abduction, to serve as “sex slaves”, and conscripted into a broad spectrum of roles including serving as spies and human beings forced to carry person-borne improvised explosive devices (PBIED). Men and boys have been mainly targeted for recruitment and are at higher risk of being killed at battle fronts or being arbitrarily detained. While the humanitarian community provided life-saving assistance to over 5.4 million affected people in 2019 and helped stabilise living conditions for millions of affected people, significant humanitarian needs remain as the conflict continues. At present, it is estimated that more than 1.2 million people are still in areas that are inaccessible to international humanitarian actors.

The Education Situation Within the Protection of Civilians Crisis

The impact of the crisis on the education system has also been severe, leaving generations of children without opportunities to learn and even more vulnerable. Since the conflict erupted in 2009, 611 teachers have been killed, 19,000 teachers displaced, 910 schools damaged or destroyed, and more than 1,500 schools forced to close. As a result, an estimated 900,000 children have lost access to learning while 75 per cent of children in camps do not attend school. 70 per cent of girls of primary school age are out of school in Borno State - the highest percentage inthe country. Of those who do attend, 72 per cent are unable to read upon completion of grade six, while Borno State has the lowest literacy rates at only 35 per cent of female and 46 per cent of male adolescents.