Somalia: Schools close in protest over insecurity

NAIROBI, 3 September 2008 (IRIN) - A three-day protest against insecurity and attacks targeting educational institutions in Mogadishu has shut down most schools and left thousands of children out of class, locals said.

"Almost 90 percent of primary and secondary schools in Mogadishu are participating in the strike," said Abdulkadir Omar Roble, spokesman for the Education Fraternity, an umbrella organisation of education networks in the city, which organised the protest.

Deliberate attacks and targeting of schools were the main reasons for the strike, Roble told IRIN on 3 September. "In this year alone, six schools have been attacked, resulting in injuries to six students and two teachers," he said.

Many schools in the city are totally destroyed and many students are no longer going to school. "We are losing a lot of children from classes because parents no longer feel their children will be safe," he added.

A local civil society activist told IRIN the education system in the capital was "almost broke".

"For some strange reason they seem to relish targeting schools," he said, adding that this trend had forced many educators to close their schools and send the children home. "In the last two years, at least two dozen schools have either been destroyed or closed due to the insecurity."

Roble accused government forces of attacking two schools last week, Imam Shaafi and SYL. "Five students and two teachers were injured in the attacks," he said.

"These attacks are badly undermining an already weak education sector," said the civil society activist. "Many in the education sector have worked hard over the last 18 years to restore education, but that is being undermined by the volatile situation."

Abdi Haji Gobdon, the government spokesman, told IRIN the government did not condone "entering or attacking" educational institutions.

"The government is very concerned about these incidents and will do everything in its power to deal very harshly with the perpetrators," he said.

After the collapse of Somalia's central government in 1991, schools and universities were destroyed as the city was torn apart by militia. But private schools have been gradually re-established over the past few years.

"In the past 18 years we have not experienced these kinds of attacks on schools," said Roble.

Organisers of the school strike said they wanted to show the public and the government that "these targeted attacks must stop". They appealed to the government to deal with the attackers and called on the opposition to cease mounting attacks on government positions near schools.

Roble urged the international community to support his group "and provide both moral and material support at this critical time".

ah/mw