{"id":118671,"date":"2021-04-15T09:24:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T01:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=118671"},"modified":"2021-04-15T09:24:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T01:24:57","slug":"total-mourning-in-niger-as-20-pre-school-children-perish-in-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=118671","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Total mourning\u2019 in Niger as 20 pre-school children perish in fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"This<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Burned chairs, tables and other objects in the school<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NIAMEY, April 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Citizens in Niger are mourning 20 pre-school children aged between three and five \u2013 trapped in the flames of a horrific fire at a school on the outskirts of the country\u2019s capital, Niamey.

The young victims perished on Tuesday when the blaze tore through buildings made of wood and straw in the impoverished poor \u201cPays-Bas\u201d neighborhood that was built in a former clay quarry near Niamey airport.

On Wednesday, anguished parents and teachers gathered at the school. Wiping away tears with her veil, the school\u2019s director Habiba Gaya said all of Niger was in \u201ctotal mourning\u201d.

\u201cThe little children, innocents, were really burned alive in this fire,\u201d she said, explaining that while older children were able to make it out, those aged five and under were not.

\u201cThey were little so they weren\u2019t able to run.\u201d

The inferno spread so quickly that one mourning father, who identified himself only by his first name, Abdoulaye, said it had already destroyed the classrooms by the time firefighters arrived at the scene.

\u201cRescuers set off rapidly and the fire was put out\u2026 but the intensity of the fire was enormous,\u201d fire service commander Sidi Mohamed said on public television on Tuesday.

Only the remains of desks and corrugated metal sheets were still visible among the debris, with charred books, pencil cases and backpacks scattered among the ashes.

\u201cThe flames were carried from classroom to classroom by the wind,\u201d said Balaraba Ibrahim who lives nearby.

Her five-year-old niece Yasmina was among the victims.

\u201cShe had come home and then she went back to school. It\u2019s almost as if she was answering the call of death,\u201d Ibrahim said, breaking down.

The cause of the fire was under investigation and it was not immediately known where it started. However, teachers and parents said on Wednesday the deaths highlight the dangers of temporary classrooms set up outside.

In Niger, which ranks as the poorest country in the world under the United Nations\u2019 189-nation Human Development Index, straw huts are often used to make room for students in overcrowded schools.

\u201cIt is important that from here the authorities stop the classes in straw huts,\u201d the National Union of Teachers of Niger said in a statement.

Gaya, the school director, echoed the call, while Ibrahim, the aunt of one of the victims, added: \u201cThere are plenty of empty lots the state could give us to build schools.\u201d

Security forces have blocked off the scene while investigators searched for evidence.

Behind police tape, local residents gathered in anguish to look over what was left of the school buildings, some with their head in their hands.

\u201cThis is the worst thing that has ever happened at a Nigerien school \u2013 20 children burned alive in no time. It\u2019s a huge loss for Niger,\u201d lamented local resident Amadou Seyni.

The mother of another victim, seated in the courtyard near other more solidly built classrooms that escaped damage, struggled to accept her loss.

\u201cAllah wanted this to happen and there is nothing we can do about it,\u201d she said, clutching prayer beads. — NNN-AGENCIES
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Burned chairs, tables and other objects in the school NIAMEY, April 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Citizens in Niger are mourning 20 pre-school children aged between three and five \u2013 trapped in the flames of a horrific fire at a school on the outskirts of the country\u2019s capital, Niamey. The young victims perished on Tuesday when the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":118672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118671"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/118672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}