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Terrorist attacks are so bad here, kids can't even go to school


LAMU, Kenya – Ten-year-old Said Sefu hasn’t attended school for three years.

He’s not playing hooky. Local officials closed his school and turned it into a military base after a spate of attacks by al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-affiliated group terrorizing Kenya, Somalia and other East African countries. 

“There are no teachers. When you go to school you only see soldiers patrolling,” the boy said as he played in his small house in this coastal town in northern Kenya near the Somali border.

Dozens of schools in the Boni National Reserve have been closed as long as four years since al-Shabab began using the lush region as a staging ground for attacks on police stations, schools, government buildings and travelers unlucky enough to cross their path.

As a result, 1,000 students in Lamu and thousands of others across the region sit idle at home or in refugee camps, according to the Kenyan government. Many children still wear their school uniforms because they have few other clothes.

“I wanted to become a teacher when I grow up,” young Said said. “But we are not going to school like other children elsewhere. I don’t think I will achieve my dream.”

The vast forest has been home to one of al-Shabab’s elite units, the Jaysh Al-Ayman, which has launched attacks in retaliation for Kenya's deployment of soldiers in Somalia in 2012 to bring peace there.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed, the Kenyan government says. In the town of Mpeketoni over two days in June 2014, more than 60 people died in assaults. Between last May and November, the militants killed more than 30 police officers.

On Jan. 24, al-Shabab militants raided a nearby village, where they preached radical teachings to terrified onlookers and hoisted their black flag at the deserted police station before vanishing into the forest.

“They told us not to cooperate with the government by giving them information,” said Farah Imam, a Lamu elder. “They also said our children should be enrolled in Arabic and Islamic education classes. We were worried, and we had to run away.”

The incident occurred one day after militants attacked a convoy on the road to Mombasa, killing a woman and injuring five police officers.  

Kenyan officials have tried to assure residents that security forces are winning the fight against the militants and that attacks are less frequent. “We have the willingness and focus,” Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said last month.   "The government is on top of the situation.”

His words have satisfied parents who are demanding a permanent security solution to keep their children safe.

“We hope to see our children go to school like others,” said Abdullahi Zuberi, whose three children have not gone to their school since it closed in 2015.

Reopening schools will be difficult because many teachers refuse to return and few children remain.

“It’s a challenge because parents have moved with their children to the displacement camps away from their villages due to the attacks,” said David Kambi, education officer for the East Lamu school district.

Gilbert Wekesa, a teacher in Garissa, where al-Shabab fighters killed 147 people at a university in 2015, said he was reluctant to go back to work after witnessing a raid that killed a teacher at his school near the Somali border last year.

“We fear for our lives. That’s why we left,” he said. “It’s one of the most dangerous places to work, especially when you are a Christian.”

The Kenya National Union of Teachers defended teachers who refuse to work. “We cannot allow teachers who work along the border to risk their lives,” said Abdirizak Hussein, a union leader in Garissa. “We urge the government to transfer them to safer areas.”

Some parents  try to home-school their children. But the youngsters would prefer to sit in a classroom.

Sudd Jabali, 16, said, “I want to go back to school and get an education so that I can help my poor family.”

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