Back to school: DR Congo conflict makes kids' preparation particularly tough

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00The academic year is about to start in DR Congo.

00:07Amid the haggling shoppers at Goma's Virunga market,

00:09Victor Nathaniel is looking for the school bags, books and stationery

00:13that he needs to buy for his three children.

00:16But inflation has sent prices soaring and money is tight.

00:19I haven't bought everything because I still need bags for the children.

00:25I don't know by what miracle I'll get them tomorrow.

00:29I am paid by the Congolese state but my salary won't be able to cover

00:32all these costs of the start of the school year.

00:35That's why preparations are so difficult for us.

00:39A few kilometres away, the hustle and bustle of back to school preparations

00:43is absent from families living at the Munigi displacement camp.

00:47While some children have been able to enrol in school this year,

00:50most will once again be deprived of an education.

00:54Seth, 17, hasn't been to formal classes for two years.

00:59I need to study.

01:00If I find someone who can take care of my schooling, I can study.

01:05In the meantime, the teenager sells phone credit to earn a little money.

01:09Here, family's main hope is for the fighting that drove them away from their homes to end

01:14and perhaps a return to their villages and normal lives.

01:17Some of my children have become rebels because they don't study.

01:21We're asking for help to end the war so we can go home and find a place for them to study.

01:26It's been three years since M23 rebels, backed by Rwanda,

01:30took up arms and took over large parts of North Kivu province.

01:34Peace is still a distant prospect.

01:36Civil society groups working with the displaced say education cannot wait.

01:44We invite the government to create temporary schools

01:47in which displaced children can be educated without paying school fees.

01:52Because we know that they have no school, not enough teachers

01:56and not enough money to pay the school fees.

02:01Nearly three million people have fled the violence in North Kivu.

02:05The conflict's impact on DR Congo's future is magnified by this disruption to the education

02:10and prospects of so many young people.

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