Amnesty Int’l alerts human rights conditions alarming in NW, SW.

The alert is contained in the organisation’s annual global human rights report released recently. 

In the report, the organisation said the conditions remain alarming due to clashes between government forces and armed separatist groups. 

Amnesty International highlighted severe disruption to education in the two Anglophone regions. The organisation said 14,829 schools were closed in 2025, up from 14,364 a year earlier. 

It added that more than three million children had their education disrupted as a result, leaving them more vulnerable, including to recruitment by non-state armed groups. 

Amnesty International also noted that only 41% of children had access to pre-primary education, with rural communities the most affected. 

The organisation linked the situation to persistent insecurity and attacks carried out by separatist groups in the North West and South West regions. 

Citing reports from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, Amnesty International documented multiple attacks targeting teachers, students and parents that were intended to disrupt examinations. 

The organisation said in 2025, residents of the two regions also faced targeted killings, recurrent kidnappings, illegal taxation, roadblocks, extortion, restrictions on movement and improvised explosive device attacks, including in public spaces and on major roads. 

Amnesty International added that violence between farmers and herders in the Northwest region further worsened the security situation. It said as in previous years, fighting between government forces and armed separatist groups continued throughout 2025. 

According to the organisation, the combined violence displaced nearly one million people within the country. 

Amnesty International also reported that OCHA’s monthly bulletins regularly documented arbitrary arrests in the Northwest and Southwest regions following clashes between the army and armed separatist groups. 

Through its latest report, the organisation highlighted the continuing crisis in the country’s Anglophone regions, where insecurity continues to affect education, civilian protection and basic freedoms. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3793 of Tuesday May 19, 2026