SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project investigates and reports attacks on higher education with the aim of raising awareness, generating advocacy, and increasing protection for scholars, students, and academic communities. Starting July 1, 2026, SAR no longer publishes reports for the incidents that it records. SAR continues to monitor and record incidents that will be used in the annual Free to Think report. This page provides a record of incidents reported up to that date. Learn more about the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project.

Date of Incident: June 02, 2025

Attack Types: Killings, Violence, Disappearances

Institution(s):Maranhao Federal University

Region & Country:Americas | Brazil

New or Ongoing:New Incident

On June 2, 2025, unknown assailants planted an explosive device at the Maranhao Federal University’s Bacanga campus.

In the morning, a university employee found an explosive device in the parking lot of the Paulo Freire Pedagogical Center on the Bacanga campus. The bomb disposal unit was called in and successfully removed the devices. No injuries were reported.

Police opened an investigation into an incident.

Scholars at Risk is concerned about threats to and/or violent and destructive attacks on campus, apparently intended to prevent the functioning of a higher education institution. In addition to the harm to the immediate victims, such actions undermine academic freedom and democratic society generally.

Sources:
*SAR identified this incident in data made publicly available by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
https://www.prensa-latina.cu/2025/06/02/encuentran-bomba-casera-en-recinto-de-universidad-brasilena/
https://g1.globo.com/ma/maranhao/noticia/2025/06/02/video-artefato-supostamente-explosivo-e-encontrado-dentro-da-universidade-federal-do-maranhao-em-sao-luis.ghtml