On this Saturday in May, the entire village is on high alert. The bazin fabrics shimmer in thousands of colors on Kataguiri Square, in the Bangui commune located in the south of the Tahoua region in Niger. The residents are hurrying to welcome education supervisor, Oumarou Ibrahim, who has come to check on the remedial teaching program put in place for the 560 displaced Nigerian children registered at the rural school. On this day, approximately sixty of them are huddled in silence on the school benches, in the sweltering heat of the tin-roofed classroom.

“Education is the key to integration,” declares Oumarou Ibrahim, who takes his role very seriously. “We have Hausa in common, but young Nigerians must also learn French.” The Supervisor sits behind the teacher’s desk and calls a student to the board, to see proof of his progress. The selected student hobbles over, with 120 eyes glued to his back in solidarity, and deciphers in an uncertain voice a few words in Hausa. He passes the test, and the 120 eyes smile at him, still without a word. A model class, if we disregard the backpacks with the humanitarian logo, the tattered clothes or that look of an old soul peering from under a veil at the back of the class, of a child who has already seen too much.

“Some families leave their children with host families then return to Nigeria. They are alone but safer here,” Oumarou Ibrahim continues. The little ones are sheltered from the violence of criminal groups, rampant in northern Nigeria, not far from there. The commune of Bangui is only one kilometer from the border of the Nigerian state of Sokoto. (Nigeria is a federation made up of 36 states, which share their sovereignty with the federal government of Abuja.) Between the two lies a common valley and a river, which is dry this season.