VOA慢速英语:Mali Conflict Keeps Children Out of School

Students and teachers are busy with the new school year in Mali and throughout West Africa. However, aid workers say most of the children in northern Mali are unable to go to school. Militants including some from the group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb took control of the north in April. The Islamists are enforcing their own severe form of Sharia law in the occupied territory. 
在马里和整个西非，学生和老师们准备忙着开始新学年。然而，援助人员称马里北部大部分儿童无法上学。4月份，包括驻伊斯兰马格利布的基地组织在内的武装分子控制了北部。伊斯兰在占领区实施严厉的伊斯兰法。
 
The United Nations Security Council is urging West African countries to speed up preparations for a military intervention in northern Mali. There are concerns that the conflict might spread to other countries.
 联合国安理会敦促西非国家加快准备对马里北部的军事干涉，人们担心冲突会蔓延到其他国家。

Large numbers of northerners have fled to the government-held south or to neighboring countries. Tom Mccormack is the Sahel director for the aid group Save the Children USA. He says there has not been enough information from northern Mali to fully understand the situation.
大批北部人逃到政府所在的南方或邻国，汤姆•麦科马克美国拯救儿童协会驻萨赫勒地区总监，他说尚未得到足够情报来全面了解马里北部的形势。

“We are very concerned that education is not being provided for all children. We’re concerned that funds need to be made available to assist children, particularly those who have been displaced by the fighting, have not been made available, especially for education in this emergency response that we and other actors on the ground here are trying to respond to.”
“我们很担心不是所有儿童都能接受教育，我们认为需要提供资金来帮助儿童，尤其是因战乱而流离失所的儿童，他们在这样紧急状态下没办法上学，我们和其他在这里的人员设法帮助他们。”

Save the Children is part of the Education Cluster, a group created by the U.N. to coordinate the emergency response in Mali. The Education Cluster says the two hundred forty thousand students remaining in the north have little to no access to education. Cluster official Joa Keis says this increases the risk of children being recruited as child soldiers.
“拯救儿童”是联合国所创立的“教育群”组织对马里局势进行应急反应的部分任务，“教育群”称24万留在北部的学生几乎没办法上学，组织官员Joa Keis这使得儿童被招募做童子军的危险增加了。

“It’s been shown that out-of-school children are particularly vulnerable to falling into the hands of armed groups given the situation in northern Mali. With the presence of several armed groups controlling the area, it is particularly important that we use education as a means of protecting children from the potential for ongoing use of child soldiers.”
“事实表明，考虑到马里北部的局势，失学儿童尤其容易落入武装组织之手。目前有几个武装组织控制了该地区，那么我们使用教育作为保护儿童的手段就很重要了，这样可以使之免于成为童子军。”

Human rights groups say the Islamists are actively recruiting children as young as twelve years old.
人权组织称伊斯兰分子尤其喜欢招募12岁这么大的儿童。

The Education Cluster surveyed twenty five organizations in the north. Three-fourths of them said local schools had been vandalized or destroyed. Half reported that teachers had fled to the south. And one-third said armed groups occupy schools.
“教育群”调查了北部的25个组织，其中3/4的组织成当地学校已遭破坏或摧毁，据悉半数的教师已逃至南方，有1/3的说武装组织占领了学校。

Save the Children also says flooding has affected an additional sixty thousand children across Mali.
“拯救儿童”行动称洪涝还影响了马里的另外6万儿童。

Yet financial assistance for the country remains low. Joa Keis says last year's humanitarian appeals process met just four percent of the goal.
但该国得到的财政援助还很少，Joa Keis说，去年的人权呼吁进程仅完成了目标的4%。

Teachers and local organizations say they have kept some schools operating in the north by negotiating compromises with armed groups. Subjects like philosophy and biology are often not allowed. Girls and boys must often be separated. And some schools are only allowed to teach in Arabic, a language that most of the students do not even speak.
教师和当地组织称他们通过与武装组织的协调，在北部保留了一些学校，使之继续开课。像哲学和生物这样的课程是不许上的，女孩和男孩通常被分开，一些学校只许老师用阿拉伯语讲课，而大部分学生甚至都不会讲这种语言。