Yemen fighting closes schools as families flee Taiz

Renewed fighting in southwestern Yemen is disrupting education as families leave their homes around Taiz. UNICEF said on 25 September that nearly 130,000 people had been displaced over the preceding three weeks, including an estimated 71,000 children. It reported that 243 schools had closed or suspended learning, affecting more than 137,000 students.

Guardian reporting from Taiz published Monday described children who have left school and begun working after displacement stripped their families of income. A school principal said a nearby missile blast forced his school, with more than 600 pupils, to close. Those accounts illustrate the daily consequences of the fighting; they are not interviews conducted by Worldbrief.

The crisis extends beyond missed classes. UNICEF said more than one in four of nearly 2,900 children screened by its mobile teams in accessible areas during recent weeks were acutely malnourished. That sample is not a nationwide rate. The agency is expanding emergency services, but blocked roads and continuing clashes complicate access. An interruption to schooling may last well beyond the immediate danger if families cannot return and livelihoods do not recover.