New figures by the Norwegian Refugee Council have revealed a staggering 12 million children missed up to four months of school across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The figures also revealed that 776,000 children were prevented from attending school the entire year due to insecurity.

According to the NRC, as schools begin to reopen across the region, many lack the critical resources to mitigate the risk of Covid-19 transmission.

It says in Niger, water and hygiene facilities in schools are far from adequate with only 15 percent of some 18,000 schools in the country having water points, while less than one-third have toilets.

Sankulleh Janko reports.