‘Most West Darfur displaced children homeless’: Education Minister

The majority of the children in camps for the displaced in West Darfur don’t go to school, the state Minister of Education has said. She also expressed concern about the increasing number of homeless children.

At a press conference at the start of a literacy project in Sudan, Minister Firdaus Hussein Saleh pointed out that children aged between 7 and 15 years in the camps of her state do not go to school.

Rains have destroyed dozens of schools in West Darfur, while there is no money for their maintenance, she said.

Radio Dabanga reported the destruction of a school building by heavy rainfall in Sirba locality in July. West Darfur is one of Sudan’s states with the highest percentage of children who do not go to school, a recent joint report by the Sudanese Ministry of Education and Unicef found. The majority of these children are from nomadic communities or rural and conflict-affected areas.

Hussein Saleh also complained about the growing phenomenon of homeless children in the state.

She further expressed concern that the refugee children in Chad are studying a Chadian and French curriculum, because there are no schools in the Sudanese refugee camps.