Burundi: Expelled for Doodles

School Places Politics Above Right to Education

Lewis Mudge

Director, Central AfricaLewisMudge

The release of six schoolgirls and one boy, arrested last month for doodling on the Burundian president’s photo and charged with “insulting the head of state”, is not the end of their woes.

In a letter dated March 20, the director at the Akamuri school accused five of the seven children arrested on March 12 – aged 13 to 17 years old –, of “falsifying their schoolbooks,” a violation of school regulations, and expelled them permanently from the school.

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