By Abdi Ali
Published May 31, 2021
A human rights organisation has accused feuding parties in Ethiopia’s Tigray area of attacking, pillaging and occupying of schools since the conflict started in November 2020.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) calls for the protection of learners and instructors in the region through a safe schools declaration.
“The fighting in Tigray is depriving many children of an education and the warring factions are only making matters worse,” says Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Occupying and damaging schools ends up affecting the lives of Tigray’s future generations, adding to the losses that communities in Tigray have faced for the last six months.”
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HRW says Ethiopia’s Federal forces, in one incident, used the historic Atse Yohannes preparatory school in the regional capital, Mekelle, as a barracks after taking control of the city from the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, in late November 2020, and continued to use the school through mid-April 2021.
After Ethiopian forces suddenly left the school in April, HRW says, Mekelle residents found widespread damage to classrooms and offices, and destruction of electrical installations, water pipes, and other property. In April, Tigray’s interim government presented aid groups with a list of damaged and pillaged property at the school, from pens and student records to 288 burned chairs and three destroyed science labs.
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HRW says about 25 percent of schools in Tigray have been damaged: In western Tigray, fighting displaced many teachers and left shortages of learning materials. The Education Ministry estimated that 48 500 teachers are in need of psychosocial and mental health support, and that some teachers at private schools are struggling to feed their families due to unpaid salaries.
“The conflict in Tigray has taken a terrible toll on children and their education,” Bader says. “International partners should now urge the Ethiopian government to take all necessary steps to ensure schools can reopen safely, including by ending the military use of schools and punishing military personnel responsible for abuses.”
