HOUTHIS KILLED, WOUNDED OVER 3,500 TEACHERS IN 6 YEARS, A NEW REPORT FINDS

Fri 16 April 2021:

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have killed and wounded more than 3,500 Yemeni teachers over the past six years, the Yemeni Teachers Syndicate has reported.

The Yemeni Teachers Syndicate issued a new report documenting the crimes and violations committed by the Houthi militia against teachers and the education sector employees in areas under their control since their coup in 2014.

According to the report, Houthi gunmen have killed 1,579 teachers and workers in the education sector, including 81 school principals and 1,497 teachers. As many as 2,642 teachers have been subjected to various injuries, some of which resulted in permanent disabilities.

The report disclosed that the Houthis had issued execution orders against ten teachers, including the head of the Teachers Syndicate in the capital, Saad Al-Nuzili, and school principal Khaled Al-Nahari, in addition to eight students, after kidnapping and detaining them.

“As many as 621 teachers have been subjected to kidnapping and enforced disappearance in various governorates of the country,” the report stated, noting that the Hodeidah governorate ranked first in terms of the number of kidnapped teachers.

According to the report: “14 teachers have died under torture in the Houthi militia’s prisons.”

The Houthis have displaced more than 20,000 teachers after threatening and prosecuting them, forcing them to leave their jobs, homes and families and immigrate to other governorates.

Moreover, the Houthi rebels have also cut the salaries of 60 per cent of the 290,000 employees in the educational sector since September 2017.

The report indicated that the Houthis’ coup had caused a state of extreme poverty among teachers, prompting some to commit suicide.

The syndicate announced that it had monitored 5,476 recruitment and mobilisation activities organised by the Houthi militia in Sana’a schools since February 2021.