Sniper seizes school in Taiz, threatens to kidnap female students

TAIZ, Oct. 22 (YPA) – A committee formed by Hadi government’s education office in Taiz province reported that a sniper belonging to Islah party  militias refused to evacuate a girls’ school and threatened to kidnap and rape female students.

A memorandum issued by the director of the Education Office in Cairo District, to the director general of the education office in the province obtained by the Yemen Press Agency, revealed that ” the gunman “Hussam al-Awni threw the students of the school and threatened them with kidnapping and rape.”

He refuses to vacate a number of classes in the school he occupies by force, in addition to the seizure of school’s Café and operating it  for his own interest, the note said.

The memorandum confirmed that school teachers may be forced to go on strike unless the gunman is removed from the school.

In its report to the Education Office, the committee called for the quick evacuation of the school rooms seized by al- Awni and his removal from school because his presence in a girls’ school is unacceptable in the balance of sharia, law, custom and morality.”

Coalition vehicles are taking several schools in Taiz city as military barracks, and government and community buildings are hotbeds of snipers.

E.M