ﻣرﻛــز اﻟﻣﻌﻠوﻣــﺎت واﻟﺗﺄھﯾل ﻟﺣﻘوق اﻹﻧﺳــﺎن Human Rights Information & Training Center Education Under Bombardment Violations Monitoring Report for Oct 2020 Education Under Bombardment October 2020 Monitoring Report In Taiz governorate In the Republic of Yemen This comes within a series of monthly monitoring reports of violations in Taiz Governorate, Republic of Yemen HRITC holds: - Holds a consultative status in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Special Thanks - Holds an observer status with the Arab League. For everyone who contributed to the issuance of this report To communicate: Human Rights Information & Training Center Majliah district - Taiz – Yemen WhatsApp: Email: All rights are save [email protected] www.hritc.co HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION AND TRAINING CENTER - VIOLATIONS MONITORING REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2020 2 HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION AND TRAINING CENTER - VIOLATIONS MONITORING REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2020 3 Report of Human Rights Violations in Taiz Governorate during October 2020 Monitored by the field team of the Human Rights Information and Training Center – HRITC Title P. General situation 6 Heavy bombing 6 Education under bombardment and Rubble 7 The security situation and the increase in assassinations 8 The Content Health status 9 Statistics 10 Infographic 18 Contact information 19 HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION AND TRAINING CENTER - VIOLATIONS MONITORING REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2020 4 HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION AND TRAINING CENTER - VIOLATIONS MONITORING REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2020 5 General situation: The intensity of the conflict escalated in Taiz during last October, and with it the grave violations, some of which amounted to war crimes and flagrant violations of the rules of international humanitarian law, increased. The educational and health facilities received the largest share of the bombing and the grave breach, and the videos and images that were reported by the media outlets and the activists' pages had a great impact in transmitting the state of terror and panic that afflicted students in schools, the College of Arts and Al-Amal Hospital for treating cancer patients. Heavy bombing: According to the HRITC field team monitoring and matching this according to the various international and human rights reports, Taiz witnessed a dysfunctional security situation, as the Houthi militia controlling the eastern highlands surrounding the city of Taiz intensified its bombing of residential neighbourhoods densely populated with civilians than any month ago so that hardly a day passes without The occurrence of indiscriminate bombing may continue throughout the day. The field team of the Human Rights Information and Training Center - HRITC monitored the places that the Houthi militia focused on bombing it with various medium and heavy artillery weapons, especially the eastern neighbourhoods of the city, such as Al-Jahmiliya, Al-Jumhori neighbourhood, Al-Zahra neighbourhood, Jabal Al-Shamasi neighborhood, Al-Haraziyah neighborhood, Al-Komb neighbourhood, Al-Thawra, Al-Ashraf neighbourhood, Hasnat neighbourhood, and the old governorate building in the district Salh. It directly targeted Al-Amal Hospital for Cancer Diseases, the schools located in it, as well as the College of Arts, which was bombed twice while students were in it, one of which was on October 4, in which these neighbourhoods were bombed with more than 70 artillery shells, and another on October 24, from their locations in the Sofitel and Al-salal hill (Tebba Al-salal). HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION AND TRAINING CENTER - VIOLATIONS MONITORING REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2020 6 The Houthi militia also bombed the Dhabab area in Jabal Habashi and the village of Al Shaqab in the Sabr Al Mawadim District. October 15 was a bloody day due to the intense and systematic bombing of eastern residential neighbourhoods, such as Jahmiliya, Al-Askari neighbourhood and others, and Doctors Without Borders announced that it had received 38 wounded civilians as a result of the bombing, including a 5-year-old child, in addition to a person who died upon his arrival at the hospital, according to a statement on that bloody day. On October 24, the Houthi militia bombed the Al-Amal Hospital for treating cancer patients, the College of Arts, and the eastern residential neighbourhoods, as well as the overcrowded Al-Samil market (Souq Al-Samil), in the Cairo district, and next to Al-Suwaidi Hospital in the fourth point (Alnoqta Alraba') with an anti-aircraft fire. The artillery shelling of the Houthi militia killed 7 civilians, including a woman and a child, and wounded 63 civilians, including 3 women and 12 children, and the Houthi bombing on the first of October of the Water Project neighbourhood resulted in a woman being subjected to miscarriage. On the other hand, the field team of the Human Rights Information and Training Center - HRITC also monitored the bombing of government forces in the Domla neighbourhood near the May 22 school in Sala on October 11, and another artillery bombardment on October 16 on the Al-Salal neighbourhood in the Salh district, and the two bombings killed two children and wounded 5 civilians, among them 3 children. Education under bombardment and Rubble: As soon as the new school year began and the students began to go to their schools, they became a daily target for the Houthi militia's cannons stationed in (Tibet Softail) Hill of the Softail and Al-salal. On their first day of school, which coincided with the fourth of October, a number of eastern neighbourhoods of the city witnessed intense shelling with more than 70 shells on a number of schools and the College of Arts, causing great panic among HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION AND TRAINING CENTER - VIOLATIONS MONITORING REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2020 7 its students, as a number of them fell on the yard of Al-Mithaq School and the yard of the Martyr Al-Thalaya School. Students have also returned to school in a number of schools that are still affected by the systematic Houthi bombing, to complete their education under the rubble, such as Al-Wahda School. In the city of Taiz, the governorate center, the war destroyed about 47 schools, according to a press statement by the director of education in the governorate, Abd al-Wasi 'Shaddad, which forced the Education Office to close those schools and direct students to other schools that could accommodate them, even if they were in poor condition and some children were forced to walk miles to get there. The security situation and the increase in assassinations: The security situation increases from time to time in the liberated areas from the Houthi militia, despite the efforts made to stabilize and enhance security in those areas. The HRITC field team monitored 5 assassinations that occurred during the month of October, two cases for each member of the government army and the fifth for unknown gunmen, resulting in the killing of 4 civilians. Members of the army killed two of them, and another unidentified armed man were killed as well as militants outside the state. Two civilians were wounded by armed men outside the framework of the state, while another escaped death at their hands, as follows: -On October 3, the Aqil (Associate) Al-Tawhid neighbourhood, Ezzadin Mohsen Al-Yafei, was assassinated by a soldier in the Military Police. -On October 4, Abdul Rahim Al-Fateh, 42, Director General of Al-Mokha Directorate, escaped the attempt to assassinate him, while his companion, Abdullah Al-Sulaymani, 25, was killed by gunmen outside the framework of the state, "the Abu Al-Abbas Brigades" militants, and another was wounded in the public street in Al-Mokha District. -On October 10, Dr. Wagdy Yassin Farea Al-Dargash was assassinated in front of his house in the Bani Masin area, south of Taiz, by a gunman belonging to one of the factions in the government army. HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION AND TRAINING CENTER - VIOLATIONS MONITORING REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2020 8 -On October 16, Abdullah Al-Askari was assassinated in Khatt Al-Asabah in Al- Turbah city by unknown gunmen -On October 20, the director of Tha'bat Police Department, Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sufyani, 45, was injured in the explosion of an explosive device by militants outside the state in Tha'bat neighbourhood, next to the Uqba bin Nafi school in district Salh. Since the beginning of October, there have been three incidents of explosions with IEDs targeting security and military patrols, and the security services have not yet revealed the circumstances of these three incidents and who is behind them. Health status: On the health side, Taiz Governorate is still suffering from an outbreak of many diseases and fevers, amid scarce efforts to confront it due to the siege imposed on the city for nearly six years, which affected the scarcity of medicines, vaccines, treatment doses, etc., in addition to targeting hospitals and health centers with intense bombardment, which made them less ready to receive the patients. The Houthi militia’s bombing of the Al-Amal Center for Treating Cancer Patients with a number of artillery shells while dozens of patients and their families were present, wounding two workers, damaging the center and endangering the lives of those present. The Deputy Director of the Media and Health Education Department at the Ministry of Health office in the governorate, Tayseer Al-Sama’i, confirmed in a media statement that the number of cases of fevers in Taiz governorate since the beginning of this year until October 25 amounted to about six thousand and 879 cases, including four deaths. According to Tayseer Al-Sama’i, the