At least 26 schoolchildren were killed and 13 injured when their classrooms made of thatch and wood were engulfed in a fire in southern Niger on Monday, a local governor told AFP.
26 children burned alive after school caught fire in Niger
“At the moment, we have 26 dead and 13 injured, four of them seriously,” said Chaibou Aboubacar, mayor of the town of Maradi, adding that the children were aged between five and six.
Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been trying to address a shortage of school buildings by building thousands of thatched and wooden sheds to serve as classrooms, with children sometimes sitting on the floor.
Fires in the highly flammable classrooms are common, but rarely result in casualties.
However, 20 schoolchildren burned to death in a school fire in a working-class district of Niamey in April.
Issoufou Arzika, secretary general of the Niger Teachers’ Union, told AFP that Monday’s fire had “decimated” the school in Maradi.
Arzika said his union had alerted officials to the danger of thatched and wooden classrooms after the Niamey fire.
“It is better to hold classes under trees than in thatched huts, which have become flammable tombs for pupils,” he said.
President Mohamed Bazoum recently promised to replace the wooden structures.
