Boss98.9 FM
At least 26 schoolchildren have been killed when their classrooms caught fire in southern Niger.
Mayor of Maradi city, Chaibou Aboubacar, said the children were aged between five and six.
Secretary-General of the Niger Teachers’ Union, Issoufou Arzika, revealed that the fire had decimated the school in Maradi, adding that the union had alerted officials to the danger of the straw and wood classrooms after the Niamey fire.
Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, has tried to fix shortages of school buildings by constructing thousands of straw and wood sheds to serve as classrooms, with children sometimes sitting on the ground.
