The United Nations Children’s Fund says education was disrupted and 14,000 schools closed in mid-2025 in West and Central Africa. UNICEF, stating this in its 2025 annual report, noted that digital platforms, however, expanded children’s access to learning.
“Education faced disruption, with over 14,000 schools closed due to conflict by mid-2025,” the report stated. “Yet access expanded through digital platforms such as the Learning Passport, now reaching 2.5 million users, and partnerships that connected more than 2,000 schools to the internet.”
The report further noted that regional initiatives emphasised foundational learning, teacher reform and early childhood education, aligning with the African Union’s Decade of accelerated action for the transformation of education and skills development in Africa.
According to the report, the Big Catch-Up initiative reached millions of zero-dose and under-vaccinated children, while effective outbreak responses reduced vaccine-derived polio cases.
It explained that expanded campaigns for measles, malaria and HPV vaccines also reached adolescents across 15 countries.
Noting that maternal and child health improved overall, the report stated that neonatal mortality remained a critical challenge.
UNICEF maintained that despite political transitions, economic pressures and climate shocks, the region demonstrated resilience and continued to advance children’s rights across health, education, nutrition, protection and social inclusion.
“While progress is evident, it remains uneven—highlighting the need for sustained investment, stronger systems and continued innovation to accelerate results for children,” the report added.
The highlight of conflict-induced school closure in the latest UNICEF report came amid a complex and escalating humanitarian crisis affecting millions of people in West and Central Africa.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in its recent Global Humanitarian Overview 2026, revealed that ongoing violence, persistent conflict, and environmental disasters were forcing families to flee their homes and making it harder for them to meet their basic needs.
Millions of people have been forcibly displaced across the region, including 12.7 million IDPs and 3.7 million refugees and asylum-seekers, and most of the displaced people are women and children, many of whom have fled multiple times and face serious risks, including gender-based violence and exploitation, with reports of rape and transactional sex as means of survival, according to the report.
