Rights group calls on Senegal to tackle abuses in Koranic schools

Children studying in Koranic schools in Senegal face an "alarming rate" of abuse, including rape, neglect and imprisonment, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, calling on the government to reform religious institutions still unregulated.

In the predominantly Muslim country, where religious leaders exert great social and political influence, poor children have long been entrusted to Qur'anic schools, called daaras, for educational purposes.

In its report on young students known as "talibes", the New York-based rights group and the PPDH, a coalition of Senegalese groups, called on President Macky Sall to implement measures of great scale to protect tens of thousands of children living in unregulated areas. daara.

The report mentions the death of 16 talibés from 2017 to 2018 as a result of beatings, negligence or endangerment, as well as other cases of rape, badual abuse and coercion. beg on the street.

Some children reported being imprisoned by their teachers in cell-like cells for weeks or months. Other people caught trying to flee said that they were chained to prevent them from trying to escape.

"Taliban children fill the streets, suffer abuse and die from abuse and neglect," Corinne Dufka, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"The Senegalese authorities say that they are determined to protect children and put an end to forced begging, so why are so many abusive, exploitative or dangerous daaras still operating?"

Past attempts to crack down on the forced begging of children – often by talibés – have been hailed by groups of children, but greeted with anger by powerful Islamic figures in Senegal.

Often from poor rural families, talibés are sent to Dakar and other Senegalese cities to memorize the Qur'an, but are often exposed to abuse and receive little education.

"I did not like daara because they beat us all the time – if we did not memorize the verses of the Qur'an or if we did not bring back money," said a talibé of 9 years of the HRW Report, who fled his daara in Dakar to escape abuse in 2018. "In daara, they beat you until you think you're going to die."

HRW said that while many Koranic teachers in Senegal do not force children to beg and treat them decently, others continue to mistreat and neglect those entrusted to them.

Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 100,000 talibé children in Senegal are forced by their Koranic teachers – also known as marabouts – to go out on the street every day to beg for food, money, money, and money. rice or sugar. Many establish begging quotas imposed by often severe beatings.