Severe abuse, exploitation, and neglect of children known as talibés continue at alarming rates in many of Senegal's Quranic schools, Human Rights Watch and the Platform for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (PPDH), a Senegalese coalition of rights groups, said in a report released today.
The 71-page report, "'There Is Enormous Suffering': Serious Abuses Against Talibé Children in Senegal, 2017-2018" documents the deaths of 16 talibé children during that period from beatings, neglect, or endangerment by certain teachers in residential Quranic schools, known as daaras. The report also documents abuses against talibés in 8 of Senegal's 14 regions, including 61 cases of beatings or physical abuse; 15 cases of actual or attempted rape or sexual abuse; 14 cases of children imprisoned, tied, or chained in the schools; and widespread forced begging and neglect.
...