DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The American Dara Academy in Senegal marketed itself to families in the United States as an affordable boarding school where their children could study the Quran alongside an American curriculum. Parents and families — many with West African roots — sent their children to the school believing it would be a rigorous and affordable religious education.
But the school is being investigated for alleged physical abuses, with hundreds of students withdrawing from the academy and one of two campuses — where most of the alleged abuses took place — now closed, according to an official close to the case.
In accounts shared with The Associated Press, students alleged that supervisors beat disobedient pupils repeatedly in a so-called “magic room.” The schoolchildren said they were sometimes ordered to strip to their underwear or be naked and told to squat with their arms extended, gripping heavy rocks. If the rocks fell, the beatings grew worse.
The authorities in Senegal confirmed to the AP that an investigation is underway. The country's gendarmerie, its child protective services and the Ministry of Justice are involved in the inquiry, according to an official close to the case.
In late January, the school's director and three administrators were arrested, according to parents and a person with direct knowledge of the arrests and investigations. They said the director was released and placed under house arrest.
Senegal's child protective services, known by its French acronym AEMO, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the gendarmerie, Ibrahima Ndiaye, confirmed that the force was notified about the abuses but said the investigation is now with the Ministry of Justice.
The school director and administrators who were arrested told the AP they could not speak on the matter due to the ongoing investigation. The exact charges have not been announced.
“The children are in the care of authorities, and charges will be filed against anyone found responsible,” Aminata Diagne, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, said of the ongoing investigations into the abuses.
The American Dara Academy enrolled 311 students — including 120 U.S. citizens — across two campuses in Senegal. Most students were children of West African origin born in the United States, some from European countries such as France, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. Only a few were from West Africa.
According to a Jan. 12 written complaint sent by the U.S. Embassy in Dakar to Senegalese authorities, several American students reported severe corporal punishment. The minors, according to the letter, identified the school’s director, who is a dual American-Guinean citizen, and three other administrators, as responsible for the abuses.
The AP has verified the authenticity of the complaint letter and its claims about abuses by speaking with dozens of parents and officials close to the case. The parents and officials who agreed to be interviewed did so without attribution to protect their children and because they were not authorized to speak about the issue.
In their accounts, the students described administrators beating them with sticks on their legs, backs, and genitals while being forced to maintain stress positions.
Some students said steel rods were sometimes used on areas that would not leave visible marks. At times, the blows landed on their heads, they said.
It is unclear whether any injuries required hospitalization, but some students reported receiving scars on multiple parts of their bodies.
The students were warned by their abusers not to speak to U.S. Embassy officials or to the police, or their parents in the United States could be arrested by immigration authorities and deported, according to the embassy’s complaint letter and a person familiar with the case.
The ministry and other relevant agencies have released few details about the case or potential charges.
Some parents told the AP they chose the American Dara Academy for its combination of religious instruction and a U.S. curriculum at a relatively low cost, of about $300 per month, including tuition, housing, and meals.
The school ran two campuses, one in the capital, Dakar, and the second in Toubab Dialaw, a coastal village 55 kilometers (34 miles) from the capital.
Before its closure, the high school campus in Toubab Dialaw — where most of the alleged abuse took place — consisted largely of a construction site with trailers, no running water, frequent power outages, and makeshift zinc latrines. Students, however, were being taught in the facility, according an official with direct knowledge of the investigation.
After the embassy contacted families, about two-thirds of the students — roughly 250 children, including around 100 Americans — withdrew from the school and returned to their home countries, according to parents and a person familiar with the investigation. The remaining students were transferred to the Dakar campus, which is in better condition.
The AP spoke to dozens of parents, many of them saying they were contacted by the U.S. embassy about the alleged abuses. None said their children told them about the abuses.
One parent, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their child’s privacy, said they have withdrawn their children and are waiting for them to be brought back to the U.S. They said their children were not among those said to have been abused.
“When I first visited the school, I stayed with them for a week,” the parent said. “I really thought I was leaving them in a safer place.”
In Senegal, corporal punishment remains lawful in homes under the country’s family law, which gives those with paternal authority a “right of correction,” though criminal statutes punish violence that causes severe injuries.
While corporal punishment is prohibited in schools for children under 14, the law does not explicitly extend to children outside that age range, private schools, or religious schools, where the “right of correction” can still potentially apply.
United Nations and children’s rights organization reports note that corporal punishment continues in practice.
It remains unclear whether prosecutors will file charges or what further actions are being considered.
For now, the investigation continues, and the children who once filled its dormitories are scattered — some back home, others still in the school waiting for answers.
The school building in Dakar is under tight security, with police guarding the site.
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Associated Press writer Babacar Dione in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.
Children play outside the American Dara Academy, a Quranic boarding school, being investigating for alleged physical abuses, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Keur Massar, Senegal. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel and Iran exchanged fire early Wednesday as Tehran kept up its pressure on the region's oil industry, apparently hitting a ship in the Strait of Hormuz and setting it ablaze while targeting infrastructure as concerns grew of a global energy crisis.
Iran has effectively stopped cargo traffic in the narrow strait through which about a fifth of all oil is shipped from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean. It has also targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations as part of a strategy apparently aimed at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end their strikes.
Early Wednesday, Kuwait said its defenses downed eight Iranian drones and Saudi Arabia said it intercepted five drones heading toward the kingdom's Shaybah oil field. A projectile hit a container ship off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze and forcing the crew to abandon the vessel.
The U.N. Security Council was to vote later in the day on a resolution sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council demanding Iran stop attacking its Arab neighbors.
Israel, which launched the war with the United States on Feb. 28, said it had renewed attacks on Tehran, following multiple strikes the day before that residents described as some of the heaviest during the war. Explosions were also heard in Beirut and in southern Lebanon after Israel said it had started a new assault on targets related to the Iran-linked militia Hezbollah.
The attacks set a building ablaze in central Beirut in the densely populated Aicha Bakkar area, engulfing the top two floors of the multistory structure. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the strike, which came without warning.
An earlier Israeli strike killed five people in the Nabatieh district in southern Lebanon, while two more were killed in strikes in the Tyre and Bint Jbeil districts, Lebanon's Health Ministry said. A Red Cross worker also died Wednesday of wounds sustained Monday, when his team was hit by an Israeli strike while they were rescuing people from an earlier attack.
Nearly 500 people have been killed so far in Lebanon since Hezbollah triggered the latest round of fighting with Israel when it fired rockets into the country’s north after the American and Israeli attacks on Iran started.
Israel warned of three Iranian attacks early Wednesday, with sirens heard in Tel Aviv and elsewhere but no immediate reports of casualties.
In addition to Iranian attacks targeting Saudi Arabia's oil fields, the kingdom's defense ministry said it had destroyed six ballistic missiles launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, a major U.S.- and Saudi-operated air facility in eastern Saudi Arabia. The ministry also said it intercepted and destroyed two drones over the eastern city of Hafar al-Batin.
In the Strait of Hormuz north of Oman, a cargo ship was hit with a projectile and set on fire, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military.
Iran did not immediately claim the attack though it has been targeting ships in and around the strait.
The UKMTO earlier reported on another attack targeting a container ship off Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates. In that case, it said the “extent of the damage is currently unknown but under investigation by the crew.”
The United Arab Emirates said early Wednesday that its air defenses were working to intercept incoming Iranian fire. The wealthy Gulf nation — home to the business and travel hub of Dubai — said Iranian attacks have killed six people and wounded 122 others there.
Bahrain sounded sirens early Wednesday, warning of an incoming Iranian attack. The warnings came a day after an Iranian attack hit a residential building in the capital, Manama, and killed a 29-year-old woman and wounding eight people.
At the United Nations, the Security Council was to vote Wednesday afternoon on the Gulf Cooperation Council resolution, according to three diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.
The council, a six-nation regional bloc, said its own facilities were targeted in an Iranian attack last week on Bahrain.
The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, condemns Iran’s attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The measure calls for an immediate end to all strikes and threats against neighboring states, including through proxies.
It would be the first Security Council resolution considered since the start of the war.
Oil prices remained well below the peaks Monday but the price of Brent crude, the international standard, was still up some 20% Wednesday from when the war began, and consumers around the world are already feeling the pain at the pump.
The spike in oil prices has been rocking financial markets worldwide because of worries that the war could block the global flow of oil and natural gas for a long time.
Amin Nasser, the president and CEO of Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco, warned Tuesday that if oil tankers continue to be unable to transit the strait “that will have a serious impact on the global economy.”
The U.S. military said Tuesday it had destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz, though U.S. President Donald Trump said in social media posts that there were no reports yet of Iran mining the passage, a prospect that experts warned of preceding the war.
In addition to the nearly 500 people killed in Lebanon, Iran has said more than 1,300 people have been killed there and Israel has reported 12 people dead.
The U.S. has lost seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries.
Many foreign nationals have been getting out of the Persian Gulf region since the war began, including over 45,000 U.K. citizens, the British Foreign Office said. Some 40,000 people returned to the United States, according to the State Department.
Magdy reported from Cairo, and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AIJoud in Beirut, Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Julie Watson in San Diego, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this story.
People take shelter in an underground metro station as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strike, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A man passes in front of a destroyed building that housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a non-bank financial institution run by Hezbollah, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty traditional main bazaar in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Motorbikes drive past a billboard depicting Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, handing the country’s flag to his son and successor Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, as the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stands at left, in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
