Children Trapped in Niger's School blaze died
The government-run junior and pre-school in the Pays Bas district of the city had a mixture of brick and straw-hut classrooms; in total, 28 straw classrooms were destroyed, and some of the school's 30 permanent classrooms were also damaged she says. Straw-hut classrooms are often built as overflow areas for lessons in schools when there are not enough brick ones, our reporter says.
A man who lost his six-year-old son in the fire urged the government to construct safe schools for children.” We have lost 20 children in a fraction of a second - we must call on the state to say that hut classes should no longer exist anywhere in the country.” Fire service commander Sidi Mohamed told public television that firefighters attended the scene quickly, but "the power of the fire was enormous," the AFP news agency reports.
Parents were waiting at the Pays Bas Primary School on Wednesday morning to find out about arrangements for burying their children; Muslim burials usually occur within 24 hours of death. Teachers' union official Mounkaila Halidou said about 800 students were attending the school. Those who died were mostly in the pre-school," he said. It is not yet clear what caused the fire. Niger is the world's poorest nation, according to the UN's development rankings for 189 countries
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