Schools in Kampant, Kappa, Ballen, and Gikess, all villages along The Gambia’s southern border with Senegal have been shutdown following last week deadly clashes between Senegalese soldiers and MFDC separatists. 

The clashes also forced dozens of villagers to flee their homes and sought refuge in the Fonis and Kombos.

The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education said the schools are still closed due to safety concerns for the children and their teachers.

Regional education director of West Coast Region Lamin Fatajo told Gambiana that his office is identifying the affected students.

“The team is locating the students in the area to allocate them temporally in other schools for the meantime before everything goes back to normal in the area.

“And the team have already left for Fonis to locate all the students affected and look at the nearest schools here they can be so they can continue with their education,” Mr Fatajo said.

“We are making findings to locate pupils from various villages affected to know where they are and take appropriate actions to help them with their education. 

“There are teams currently working on ground and the teachers are also not in the affected schools. 

“We have gathered information about the teachers that are our staff under the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and we have recorded their locations too and they have been contacted,” he added.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba