The only universities in Niger and Mali were shut down in early October, after students and lecturers in the two impoverished West African countries went on strike to demand the payment of government stipends and salaries, promotions to senior ranks, and improved learning and working conditions. The University of Mali reopened less than two weeks later, without the strikers’ demands being met, but the University of Niger remains closed.
In Niger, the students’ protest coincided with one by university lecturers and researchers, who had stopped teaching earlier in the week because they still had not been paid their salaries for September. Reports from Niger indicated that the crisis had been triggered by a rumor that the government planned to abolish the monthly stipends and to privatize dining and transport services. University education in Mali and Niger is free, and any effort to shift some financial burden onto students has been frustrated by protests.
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