The floods are worsening the education crisis, according to the NGO. The 10 million students currently stuck at home or displaced are in addition to the approximately 36 million children, including 20 million in Nigeria alone, who are already out of school in these four countries, according to the UN, due to conflict and poverty.
A flooded school in Mororo, Kenya, in November 2023. STRINGER/REUTERS
At the end of September, Niger announced the postponement of the start of the school year by at least three weeks due to the floods. In this country where schools are already normally saturated, more than 5,000 classrooms have been destroyed or flooded. In early October, Mali also announced the postponement of the start of the school year. In Nigeria, thirty of the thirty-six states have been affected by flooding. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Tanganyika province is the worst affected.
Save the Children is calling on donors to support an intensified response to the consequences of natural disasters. For the NGO, governments and partners must take urgent measures to provide alternative options that allow children to continue their education. According to Save the Children, more resilient schools are also needed, adapted to extreme weather events, which have become more frequent and to which the global response must include the needs and rights of children.