TAEZ, Yemen —
Yemen’s new school year is
underway, but Midian Aoud skips class and washes cars to support his family in
its struggle to survive the “misery” of poverty exacerbated by war.
اضافة اعلان
The 12-year-old lives in Taez, a besieged city in
the grinding conflict between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and government forces
supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.
“My friends are studying and I am not. They are in
seventh grade. I dropped out of school to help my parents and support my
family,” Midian, dressed in a torn T-shirt, told AFP.
After washing cars, Midian goes to help his father,
Adnan Aoud, a shoemaker who says his decision not to send his son to school was
difficult but unavoidable as the extra income was needed just to feed the
family.
“To study, you need books, notebooks and pens. I
wanted to provide for my children and send them to school, but I couldn’t,”
Adnan told AFP. “We are in total misery.”
The father said he himself was also unable to attend
school in a country that was already one of the poorest in the
Middle East even
before the war that has ravaged it for eight years.
‘Illiterate’
“My children and I are
illiterate. I wanted my son to do better than me, but he’ll become a shoemaker
too,” said Adnan. “This isn’t a life!”
Yemen’s economy was already in crisis before the
conflict started in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa.
Since 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition intervened,
the war has killed hundreds of thousands directly or indirectly, the UN says.
The conflict has
fueled displacement, the spread of disease and collapse of infrastructure, and
pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.
A UN-brokered truce that came into effect on April 2
and has twice been renewed provided respite from violence for much of the
country and alleviated some of the suffering.
The UN children’s agency
UNICEF said the country is
facing a “severe education crisis”.
“The conflict and frequent interruptions to
schooling ... have a profound impact on learning as well as intellectual and
emotional development,” the agency told AFP.
The war and the education crisis were damaging the
mental health of 10.6 million children, UNICEF said.
The UN agency estimates that more than two million
children have dropped out of Yemen’s schools, an increase of nearly
half-a-million since 2015.
UNICEF says displacement, security risks, teacher
shortages, and decaying infrastructure worsened the problem, with at least one
in four schools unusable due to the conflict.
Dangers abound
In Taez, schools reopened
this month with more than 500,000 students joining classes despite the danger
of living in a city held by the government but surrounded by rebels who are
blocking roads.
The Houthi siege “hinders many of our students as
well as the entry of school supplies”, said Abdelwassie Shadad, head of
education in the Taez region.
Despite the current ceasefire, dangers abound for
students, including gunfire.
Barriers made of dirt are erected in some areas to
protect children on their way to school.
Ishraq Yahia, a teacher at a girls’ school,
described the truce as “a huge failure” since the siege remains in place and
there is still sporadic sniper fire.
“There are still students being targeted on their
way to school. Some have been hit while they were inside the school bus,” she
told AFP.
Taez, which is surrounded by mountains, is one of
the cities hardest hit by Yemen’s war.
So far, in spite of UN-sponsored talks, there has
been no progress made on opening the main roads leading into Yemen’s third
city.
The siege has complicated the delivery of
humanitarian aid and added to transportation costs since goods have to be taken
on longer routes, denying many Yemenis access to basic services.
Malak Faisal says goodbye to her mother every day in
case she doesn’t make it back alive.
“We are in danger every day going to school. The
Houthis’ missiles and snipers don’t spare anyone.”
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