The United Nations children’s agency says attacks on schoolsin Afghanistan tripled in 2018, compared to the year before.
UNICEF’s press release on Tuesday says the number of attackson schools went from 68 in 2017, to 192 in 2018. It was the first time schoolattacks had increased since 2015.
The agency says one of the reasons for the spike was thatschools were used as voter registration and polling centers in last yearparliamentary elections.
UNICEF also says Afghanistan’s conflict and deterioratingsecurity situation left more than 1,000 schools closed last year. Half amillion children were denied their right to education.
An estimated 3.7 million children between 7 and 17 years ofage — nearly half of all school-aged children — are out of school inAfghanistan.