Over One Million Children Denied Access to Education As DR Congo Strives to Reclaim Captured Towns

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) army has announced the recapture of five strongholds of the Mobondo militia in Grand Bandundu. The areas are Popo, Lweme, Salongo, Endula, and Mabanga, all in the Kwamouth territory. The bastions were recaptured following mopping-up operations carried out in the part of Mai-Ndombe province.

In a statement made public on March 5, the military revealed that fifteen militiamen were killed during the operation and nine caliber 12 type arms were seized. Eight Mobondo militia were killed and several others wounded last Sunday, including their chief named Cobra in Lweme village.

The captured militia areas were the first to come under the control of the army in 2025.

Meanwhile, M23 rebels are forcing schools to reopen in South Kivu, where they still rule. However, only about 50 per cent of the students have been reporting to school.

The Minister of National Education and New Citizenship, Raissa Malu, revealed that the crisis in the eastern part of the country has led to the closure of 2,594 schools, with 1,483 in North Kivu and 1,111 in South Kivu, affecting 1,108,962 children.

Several schools in DR Congo had been bombarded, destroyed or taken over by armed groups, which turned them into their bases, the minister said.

The climate of permanent insecurity, fuelled by the presence of the AFC/M23 and the Rwandan army, has been complicating all attempts at a return to normalcy in schools. Despite this critical situation, the rebels have been forcing children and teachers to return to school in the zones under their control.

“The schools are forced to open, but for us, before opening schools, we must ensure that the security conditions are sure. Thus, there is a register which permits us to verify the conditions; there are open schools, but we find that a majority of parents keep their children at home. We have but a 50% presence of children in schools, which shows at what point the sentiment of insecurity remains high for the parents who keep their children at home. What we insist on is that the security of teachers and students should be the top priority,” said Raissa Malu.

He added that the government regrets that the ongoing war in the eastern DR Congo has negatively affected all the efforts made in the sector of educating the young Congolese.

“This situation of war negatively affects the work which was realized these last years to ameliorate the conditions of teachers and students, it is extremely hard to see a school destroyed knowing all the efforts the state has put in to construct it,” the minister remarked.

Despite calls by the international community and regional organisations, the M23 rebels continue their advance in the South Kivu province, aggravating the humanitarian and insecurity crisis in the country.

According to the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), even before the recent spike in the conflict, the education system in the region was already under immense pressure, notably because of the number of students and persons displaced. More than 6.5 million persons, including 2.6 million children, were forced to flee from their homes in the region.

Since the beginning of the year, violent clashes have forced the closure of more than 2,500 schools and places of apprenticeship in North Kivu and South Kivu, including those in camps for displaced persons. Besides schools closed, damaged or turned into shelters, 795,000 children are deprived of education as against 465,000 in December 2024. If Ituri province is included, more than 1.6 million children in Eastern DR Congo are right now out of school.