LAGOS: African defense and foreign ministers will held an emergency meeting yesterday in the Ivorian capital Abidjan on the political and security crises in Mali and Guinea Bissau, an official statement said.
The extraordinary meeting will consider reports presented by the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Desire Kadre Ouedraogo, on the political and security situations in the two countries, the ECOWAS statement said.
The foreign ministers of Burkina Faso and Nigeria will also brief the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council meeting on the mediation efforts in Mali and Guinea Bissau, respectively, it said.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is trying to broker an end to the political crises in Mali — which has been effectively sliced in two after a putsch — and in impoverished Guinea-Bissau, which suffered a coup in April. Ivory Coast’s Chief of Defense Staff also briefed the Council on the outcome of the two-day committee meeting which ended on Saturday in Abidjan. The defense chiefs have held several meetings as part of ECOWAS efforts towards the resolution of the crises in Mali and Guinea Bissau following the coups d’état which interrupted constitutional rule in both countries, and the separatist rebellion in northern Mali.
The Council’s meeting comes in the wake of the formal request by the government of Mali for ECOWAS military assistance to recover the occupied territory in the north of the country and combat terrorism, the statement said.
ECOWAS has had 3,300 regional troops on standby for months but was awaiting a formal request from the Malian authorities to seek UN Security Council approval for a military deployment.
The country was considered one of the region’’
n FROM: Agence France Presse
ECOWAS defense ministers meet on Mali, Guinea Bissau
ECOWAS defense ministers meet on Mali, Guinea Bissau
Bangladesh to fund Rohingya education for first time as foreign donors pull back
- Funding shortfalls forced UNICEF to close thousands of schools in Rohingya refugee camps
- Rohingya are excluded from public schools in Bangladesh to prevent long-term integration
DHAKA: The Bangladeshi government will fund the primary education of Rohingya children living in refugee camps following the closure of thousands of UN-supported facilities due to budget shortages, authorities said on Wednesday.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were forced to flee a military crackdown in Myanmar and take shelter in neighboring Bangladesh in 2017. Today, more than 1 million of them are cramped inside 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar district on the country’s southeast coast. About half are children.
The Bangladeshi government does not allow Rohingya children to enroll in regular public schools outside the camps under its longstanding policy to prevent long‑term integration. Since the beginning of the crisis, Bangladesh, which is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, has made it clear that the Rohingya settlement is temporary.
Education has largely been organized by NGOs and UN agencies, providing basic literacy without recognized certificates. But many of these schools were forced to close last year, as foreign aid plunged — especially after the US, which contributed 55 percent of it, suspended most of its humanitarian operations.
To prevent the collapse of educational facilities, the Bangladeshi government on Tuesday for the first time approved state funding to keep them operational, with more than $16 million designated for primary education for Rohingya children under a World Bank grant.
“This World Bank funding will be used by UNICEF to operate learning centers in the Rohingya camps. As UNICEF is currently facing a severe funding shortage, the Bangladesh government has stepped in to provide support, with assistance from World Bank loans,” Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News.
“Due to the funding crisis, most learning centers in the camps have suspended operations. With this new funding, many of these centers will be able to resume activities. There are around 8,000 learning centers in the camps, of which only about 4,000 are currently operating, while the other half remain closed.”
There are more than 400,000 school-age Rohingya children in the Bangladesh refugee camps. The Bangladeshi government’s support will reach 200,000 of them, with the teaching program based on the national curriculum of their home country, Myanmar.
About 1,100 teachers will be employed and trained to work with the children, Rahman said.
“The government has approved the funding primarily for one year, but the program will continue until 2027. Revised negotiations may take place later to consider a further extension.”
