Classrooms under fire: Yemen’s warring parties launched 380 attacks impacting schools, report finds
A new report has found that the Saudi-led coalition, Houthi rebels, government forces and other factions in Yemen's civil war have all occupied, used or attacked schools.
As the conflict in Yemen approaches its sixth year, attacks on or near schools have forced many to close their doors, depriving thousands of children of their basic right to an education, a new report has found.
Independent Yemeni human rights organization Mwatana and the London-based Ceasefire Center for Civilian Rights found that the country’s warring factions have "all damaged, destroyed, used, occupied or attacked schools." The report released Tuesday documented more than 380 attacks on or in close proximity to educational facilities between March 2015 and December 2019.
Many of 153 airstrikes attributed to the Saudi-led coalition appeared to be indiscriminate, the report found. In the vast majority of cases, when coalition airstrikes damaged or destroyed schools, researchers were not able to identify a military target nearby.
“In 140 out of 153 [cases], there wasn’t any military presence in or near the schools. It’s like they bombed the schools for nothing,” said Noria al-Hossini, the report’s lead researcher.
