The skyline of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, as seen from Entoto Mountain. In the last few years, Ethiopia has experienced conflict after conflict, and the safety of the country worsened again in autumn 2026.
Photo: Venla Lehtinen

There are currently more ongoing armed conflicts around the world than there have been at any time since World War II. Moreover, war victims are increasingly often civilians – not de facto parties to the conflict. Reports from international organisations indicate that the number of attacks and strikes on schools has grown in crisis areas. 

According to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), strikes on educational institutions increased globally in 2024 and 2025. This is partly due to the increase in the number of armed conflicts, but also has to do with the undermining of international norms. GCPEA recorded at least 9,259 attacks on education in the aforementioned years. This is more than a fifty per cent increase from 2022–2023.  

Conflicts have also had a huge impact on the education opportunities of children and young people in Ethiopia, where SYL is carrying out a development cooperation project. According to GCPEA, at the start of 2025, there were over nine million children in Ethiopia who could not attend school, particularly in the regions of Amhara, Oromia, and Tigray. War has also taken a toll on universities through attacks and student arrests. One especially grave incident was the reported kidnapping of approximately 100 students from Debark University while they were travelling from the Amhara region to the capital Addis Ababa in July 2024. 

Two years ago, I travelled to Ethiopia as part of SYL’s monitoring of the development project, and the traces of a war that had recently ended were visible throughout our trip. Firstly, we were unsure if we could even visit Bahir Dar University, one of the universities participating in our project, due to the security situation in the Amhara region. Overland travel between some regions was not safe but we reached our destination by plane. Our project aims to make higher education more accessible, and as a part of this objective, we also examined physical accessibility. I remember one conversation at Bahir Dar University when we learned that some students may have become disabled due to the conflicts. 

The link between war and education has been on my mind a lot this year. Early this year, I was in the middle of an internship in Lebanon when the war broke out. In summer, UNICEF reported that this latest conflict has resulted in 340 schools being damaged or destroyed in Lebanon. Moreover, some schools have been converted into temporary shelters for the Lebanese who have been displaced from their homes. According to estimates, the conflict has jeopardised the access to schooling for at least 100,000 children. Ethiopia and Lebanon are just a couple of examples of countries where war prevents children and young people from exercising their right to schooling. According to GCPEA, it reported attacks on education in as many as 83 countries in 2024–2025. 

Securing schooling and the chance to learn new things are essential – even in the middle of conflict.  Going to school can offer children and young people a routine and something familiar at a time when the rest of their daily lives have completely turned upside down. School helps maintain social relationships, which, in turn, contributes to processing traumatic experiences and give students faith that life can go on after the conflict.  

From the societal perspective, safeguarding access to education during conflict also helps rebuild society after the war and ensures human and social resources to rebuild. If children and young people lose years of their education, the consequences may be seen in the society even long after the war is over. 

Venla Lehtinen
Member of KENKKU