161 schools still closed down due to Boko Haram crisis

The Cameroonian government announced that 161 nursery, primary and secondary schools will remain closed in the Far North Region due to insecurity linked to the Nigerian terrorist sect, Boko Haram.

Despite the reduction of the capacity of nuisance of Boko Haram materialized by the fact that its incursions into Cameroonian territory are becoming increasingly rare, the authorities would not take the risk of reopening schools which are most often targets by terrorists.

Thus, only schools that worked during the school year 2014/2015 and those created in cantonment sites for refugee camps will still be operational during the next school year scheduled for September 7 for the whole country.

"We are aware that insecurity has decreased over the past school year where we had proceeded to close down these schools but we felt it was necessary not to reopen these schools in the next school year," said the Minister of Basic Education (MOE), Youssouf Adidja Alim.

However, she added, "we will proceed with the reopening of these, that is to say that some institutions could be operational during the 2015/2016 school year.”

The most affected areas include the departments of Logone and Chari in Kousseri, Mayo Sava in Mora and Mayo Tsanaga at Mokolo, which have the most recorded Boko Haram attacks.