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Cameroon Closes Schools as Boko Haram Suicide Bombings Increase

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDE - Cameroon says it has again closedmore than60 schools on its
   northern border with Nigeria to save children and teaching staff from
   increasing Boko Haram attacks. The central African state has deployed
   its military toteachdisplaced children in locations they say are safe.
   Boko Haram is increasingly using suicide bombers,as the military
   hasdrasticallyreduced the terrorist group's firepower.

   Ousmanou Garga,theCameroon basic education officialon thenorthern
   border with Nigeria,says recent Boko Haram attacks have made
   manyschoolsunsafe.

   Garga says several dozen schools in Cameroon's Mayo Sava,
   MayoTsanagaand Logone and Chari administrative units
   thatborderNigeria'sBornostate,theepicenter of Boko Haram,no longer
   function.

   "Sixty-two schools have been closed. The childrenhave tobe
   eitherscholarized[educated]in other schoolsvery farfrom their own
   villages or to abandon schools. Thirty-four-thousand-and-fifty-four
   students have been registered as IDPs. We have the students of the
   hostcommunities;we have even refugee students,"Garga said.

   Garga said teachers inallthe affected schools fled with the children
   they teach.

   Cameroon'smilitary has been reporting at least three Boko Haram attacks
   every weeksince January. The military saysmostof the attackers are
   suicide bombers, mainly women and children. The military says the
   terrorist group has torched 13 schools within the past two months, held
   at least 200 people for ransom and abducted an unknown number of
   civilians.

   ColonelNdikumAzeh, commanderof Camerooniantroops fighting Boko Haram in
   the Mayo Sava, MayoTsanagaand Logone and Chari administrative
   units,says the military has been deployed to protect civilians inthe
   area.Azehsays some troops have also been deployed
   toteachdisplacedstudents in safer areasless susceptibleto BokoHaram
   attacks.

   "Ashigashia[aborder town]has for long been a target for Boko Haram
   assault as early as[since]2014. The hierarchy[military]thinks that to
   sustain a good security situation, it is through the youths and the
   best processisthroughtheir education,"Azeh said.

   Nongovernmental organizations, rights and humanitarian groups have been
   calling on Boko Haram to respect theintergovernmentalSafe School
   Declaration. Desire Fouda of the NGO School First saysthe
   declarationshould beobservedto protect studentsandensure they are able
   to obtain an education.

   "We sensitize different actors in education to respect those guidelines
   on safeschoolsdeclaration so that all the different actors should
   contribute to help those children to have access to education,"Fouda
   said.

   Boko Haramterrorists havebeen fighting for 11 years to create an
   Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. The fighting has spread to
   Cameroon, Chad,Nigerand Benin,with regular killings,
   abductionsandburningsofmosques,churches,marketsand schools.

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