At least 26 schoolchildren lost their lives in southern Niger on Monday after their classrooms made up of straw and wood caught fire, reported Aljazeera.
Most of the children were just five or six years old. A number of children got wounded during the blaze that broke out on Monday morning in the country’s Maradi region. Some of the injured children were said to be in critical condition.
The cause of the fire has not yet been known.
Chaibou Aboubacar, the mayor of Maradi city, told local media that the fire destroyed three classrooms.
In Niger, classrooms are built using wood and straw as a cheaper alternative to fix shortages of school buildings.
“This tragic event once again puts the Nigerien people in mourning,” the government said in a statement.
After the incident, the Niger government has decided to ban straw and wood classrooms across the country. It has declared three days of mourning in the Maradi region from Tuesday.
In an interview with AFP, Issoufou Arzika, the secretary-general of the Niger Teachers’ Union, said Monday’s fire had “decimated” the school in Maradi.
Arzika said the teachers’ union had previously warned the government authorities regarding the danger of the straw and wood classrooms after a similar fire accident in Niamey earlier this year.
He said it is better to conduct classes under trees than to have them in wooden and straw-made huts, which have become flammable graves for the children.
A similar kind of incident took place in April this year when 20 children lost their lives in a fire in Niger’s capital, Niamey after they were trapped behind the school gates. 28 straw classrooms were destroyed in the incident.
With a population of around 25 million, Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world and has one of the lowest literacy rates in Africa.
