'Lost generation': millions of Ethiopian children deprived of school

"I don't know when I'll be able to go back to school," 14-year-old Desta said, one of millions of children in northern Ethiopia's Amhara region deprived of school.

Desta has not been in a classroom for nearly four months and now divides his time between farming duties and household chores at home -- yet another silent casualty of the armed clashes in the country's restive north.

Until September, the teenager -- whose name has been changed over security fears -- walked the 10 kilometres or so to school from his village roughly 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Bahir Dar, the regional capital.

But after fighting broke out in the area, Desta's father Tesfaye refused to send him to class.

"I don't want my son to risk his life by going to school," he told AFP by phone from the village.

'LOST GENERATION'

Amhara is Ethiopia's second most populous region, home to some 23 million people, but has been roiled by conflict since April 2023.

The Fano "self-defence" militia took up arms against the state after authorities attempted to disarm them.

Although a state of emergency ended in June, Addis was forced to deploy troops in September, with the unrest continuing.

Federal authorities said last month that the humanitarian situation was "catastrophic".

The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that more than 4,000 schools have closed in the region due to the clashes and 300 others have been damaged.

Some children have been without formal education for years, rights groups say, because of the double-punch of the war in Tigray and Covid shuttering schools.

"When war rages, women and children are the most vulnerable, and this war has really affected children who can no longer go to school," said Yohannes Benti, head of the Ethiopian Teachers' Association, which has some 700,000 members nationally.

Of the seven million children who should have enrolled for the last school year in Amhara, only three million were able to do so, he said.

The impact was felt not just in the restive north, he added.

Millions of other children were deprived of schooling in Tigray and in Oromia, Ethiopia's most populous region.

"When you miss even one day of school, you already miss a lot, so imagine over several months, several years," he said, adding that the impact falls hardest on the youngest.

"This is a lost generation."

'CAUGHT IN A VICE'

Desta hopes his classmates will soon be together and learning again.

"What I miss most is spending time with my friends and I hope to see them again soon," he said.

"I don't know when I'll be able to go back to school, but if they tell me it's possible tomorrow, I'll go."

But teachers like Dawit, who taught in the northern Amhara town of Dessie for 17 years, have lost the optimism of youth.

Over the decades, Dawit said he had seen his life's work disappear.

"Last year we were only able to teach for a month" due to the fighting, he told AFP.

He described how the numerous government and Fano roadblocks deter parents from sending their children to school.

"There's fighting every day, and we're caught in a vice between the government, which wants us to continue teaching, and the Fano, who are trying to stop us," he said.

"We've lost hope."