A student responds to a teacher’s question in an overcrowded classroom at a public primary school in Kaya, Centre-Nord region, Burkina Faso. In January 2020, the school had 748 students, including 113 displaced students. “Each day, the displaced students come… we don’t refuse enrollment, but if there isn’t any space they can’t start,” the principal said. © 2020 Lauren Seibert/Human Rights Watch
Two members of Ansaroul Islam, an armed Islamist group in Burkina Faso, were recently sentenced to 20 years in prison for a 2018 attack on a primary school. Victims of the attack welcomed the verdict, which provided some rare accountability for attacks on education. But the proceedings were marked by more than three years of pre-trial detention, and trial observers indicated the defendants were not informed in court of their right to legal counsel under the law. As governments work to eradicate violence against education, accountability should not come at the cost of fair justice.
Some Accountability for Attack on Burkina Faso School | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)
