Landmines can hamper or even deny children’s fundamental right to a safe education, and Yemen is a tragic example of the suffering caused by heavily mined schools.
Many children in the war-torn country have witnessed their schools being taken over by landmines – rendering them inaccessible – or destroyed by landmine explosions. One such school is the Al-Shaab School in the village of Akkad in Taiz Governorate.
Mr. Muhammad Hassan Saeed, deputy supervisor at the educational directorate of Jabal Habashi, where the school is located, told Project Masam: “The field visit I have recently paid to Al-Shaab School enabled me to see the terrible devastation brought by mines against this vital educational place. Large parts of the school collapsed and many students and teachers lost their lives while others lost their limbs, in heartbreaking tragic accidents.”
Saeed pointed out that the urgent appeals to Masam teams operating in the area were answered quickly and a team was dispatched to survey and clear the school.
To ensure the safe continuation of the educational process, Masam team built a fence after surveying the school to isolate the contaminated area from the rest of the place frequented by students until the school is entirely cleared and deemed risk-free.
Sameh Fares, a student of Al-Shaab School, said: “Our school was good and very big. It accommodated everyone exactly like a mother’s heart. We were quite safe and reassured in our school, in which we never experienced fear. But when the booby-trapped explosion occurred in some of the classrooms, everything changed. My classmates escaped, some of them dropped out, while others lost their limbs.
“We have become constantly afraid to go to our school, which we loved so much. We are afraid of being killed because of these mines. We really appreciate the great effort exerted by Masam teams to rid our school of mines. I want to tell them that we are praying for their safety and we are eager for our school to be returned to us free of mines.”
Another pupil, Hady Abdo Fadel, echoed Sameh’s heartbreak: “My father refused to allow me going to Al-Shaab Akkad School, as he was afraid that he would lose me because of the landmines planted in the school. The mines deprived me of my school, and I am now sitting at home without studying.
When watching children going happily to their schools, on TV, and sitting in their classrooms, I suffer a lot because I love my school very much. My father insists on not allowing me to go to school, especially because I once picked up a small object while I was playing somewhere in my school. I lost three fingers on one hand, and since then, my father has become more determined not to let me go to my school, which makes me very sad.”
Hadi added: “Today I am very happy because Masam teams secured the school from mines. Because of this, my father took me to my school, and I came back with my friends to study and play as we used to do in the past. So, many thanks to Masam which returned our beloved school to us safe from mines.”
