Iran-backed Houthi militias intend to seize cash incentives offered by UNICEF to 130,000 teachers in the areas under coup control, Yemeni educational sources in Sanaa said.
From late 2018, UNICEF, with Saudi and UAE funding, had been handing out allowances for teachers in Houthi-controlled areas.
The international organization earmarked a $50 monthly allowance for teachers in insurgency-controlled areas. Houthis had frozen the salaries of public sector employees, including teachers, in militia-run areas.
Under orders from Yahia Badreddin al-Houthi, who is the brother of Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, militia leaders started meeting with UNICEF officials to pressure the international body to replace teachers with Houthi members.
Sources accused the insurgents of setting out to destroy whatever is left of the education sector by confiscating cash incentives intended to help teachers who have struggled for four years under Houthi rule without salaries.
A school principal in Sanaa, who requested anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat that militia leaders are arguing that education had been brought to a halt due to coronavirus precautionary measures which makes teachers undeserving of the money.
The principal denounced the Houthi move, saying that it denies teachers their rights.
“The Houthi group can easily pay the salaries of educators and employees from the huge revenues it earns from taxes, royalties, customs, and other sources, but instead it now plans to rob teachers of the crumbs provided by UNICEF,” they said.
The Houthis have transformed schools into arenas for recruiting and mobilizing minors.
According to official government reports and other reports of local and international human rights organizations, there are about 4.5 million Yemeni children who have been denied education since the militia’s nationwide coup.
