Niger: Fire kills 20 school children trapped in classrooms

Maravi Post Reporter

5 years ago

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At least 20 children have died after fire gutted their classrooms in Niger.

The fire started around the entrance of the school, which has a population of 800 students.

It spread to 21 classrooms built with straw and trapped the children inside, as they did not have an alternative escape route.

The cause of the fire in the school, located in the Pays Bas area of the capital Niamey, has not yet been established.

“Without an emergency exit, many were trapped and students were forced to scale the wall to escape.

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Those that died were mostly children in the preschool,” Reuters quoted a teachers’ union official, Mounkaila Halidou, as saying.

A man who lost his six-year-old son in the fire the BBC that “Let’s not put everything in the hands of God, let’s not put everything in the hands of the state.”

“We have lost 20 children in a fraction of a second – we must call on the state to say that hut classes should no longer exist anywhere in the country.”

Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou has visited the school to offer his condolences to the parents of the deceased pupils.

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Tanzania: Ten school pupils burnt to death in dormitory fire

Source: Africafeeds.com

Source: Africa Feeds