East DRC schools closed over conflict
Education, DRC, congo, Thomas Tumusifu Buregeya, IDPs, Democratic Republic of Congo, conflict, M23, rebel group, Kibumba
Thomas Tumusifu Buregeya wishes he was in the middle of his final exam prep. Instead, he makes ends meet by working odd jobs at a camp for internally displaced people in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo after another wave of rebel warfare upended his life.
Buregeya and his family left the town of Kibumba in October amid a new M23 rebel attack; this was the third time in 15 years that he had to flee his home and was unable to complete a full year of schooling. He is still waiting to finish school at the age of 22.
“When from this camp I see … finalists like me, it makes my heart ache, I wonder when I will finish my studies, the years are going by,” he said.
He is one of the 750,000 young Congolese whose schooling is currently disrupted by insecurity in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) estimated in late March.
Thomas Tumusifu Buregeya (right) plays cards with his friends on April 6, 2023. He is one of the 750,000 young Congolese whose schooling is currently disrupted by insecurity in eastern DR Congo. PHOTO | ARLETTE BASHIZI | REUTERS
Playing cards
In the small camp next to an evangelical church outside the provincial capital Goma, Buregeya spends his time leaning against the tin wall of the church or playing cards with schoolfriends also displaced from Kibumba.
Since January 2022, some 2,100 schools in eastern Congo have had to close because of armed conflict, according to UNICEF.
The damage could be lasting. Without access to education, children and young people can miss the chance to develop the skills needed to escape poverty and overcome the desperate economic challenges that help fuel conflict in places such as mineral-rich eastern Congo, according to a 2011 UN report on global education and armed conflict.
Buregeya fears time is running out for him.
“My life’s dream was to go to university after high school, to look for a job, become a teacher and earn a living,” he said.
