<\/p>\n
Nine children are probably dead. Killed in a fire. Most of them were Koranic students because their poor parents entrusted their care to a holy man. Plan was, they’d beg for him during the day, study with him at night.<\/p>\n
Iffy plan, if you ask me. Now nine are presumed dead, seven have definitely passed.<\/p>\n
The seven had been locked in their room in the wooden dwelling and could not be saved, residents said, as flames, fanned by high winds from the nearby Atlantic Ocean, consumed the house. The other children managed to escape, they said, or had been sleeping outside.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This arrangement is fairly common.<\/p>\n
Human rights groups say there are some 50,000 of these children here, some as young as 5, forced to beg on dangerous streets<\/a> by the holy men, known as marabouts, and kept in precarious living conditions in flimsy dwellings, often given little to eat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Lovely. Just lovely.<\/p>\n
Within Senegal, there is sporadic pressure to end the system, and last month the government promised, again, to end forced child-begging by 2015. Human Rights Watch<\/a>, which reported extensively on the practice three years ago, said Sunday\u2019s fire underscored the urgent need for reform. In its 2010 report<\/a>, the group said the children were often severely punished if they failed to meet a begging quota each day.<\/p>\n
Cases of talib\u00e9s being crushed in traffic while begging are frequently reported in the local news media, but the number of deaths in the fire made it one of the worst accidents involving the boys in recent years. The marabout was not even on the premises when the fire started, residents said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were here alone,\u201d said Ismael Gakou, 32, a shopkeeper who lives next door. \u201cHow can you leave them alone like that?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But, working with a “holy man” must be pretty awesome?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey read the Koran until 8 p.m., then he leaves for his apartment,\u201d Mr. Gakou said, referring to the marabout. \u201cHe treats them badly.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is little electricity in the neighborhood, and residents said that an overturned candle in the boys\u2019 room had started the fire. By the time the fire department arrived, at least 15 minutes after the alarm was raised \u2014 pushing through the warren of narrow, sandy alleys leading to the house \u2014 it was too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the fire started, the children were locked in the room,\u201d said Awa Sow, who also lived in the one-story, 12-room house. \u201cThey were yelling. But nobody could get in.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sigh.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the face of this tragedy, the Senegalese government must finally tackle the country\u2019s widespread abuse and exploitation of young boys through forced begging,\u201d Human Rights Watch said in a statement Monday. \u201cTens of thousands of boys continue to live and beg in extremely precarious conditions, enriching teachers who have twisted the country\u2019s proud tradition of religious education.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Gakou, the neighbor, saw the victims\u2019 remains carried out early Monday in plastic bags. \u201cThe whole neighborhood is in mourning,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody around here has slept.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n