Yemen: An appeal to lift the siege of the students in "Dar al-Hadeeth" in Sa'dah, and their families

Alkarama and Hood urgently appeal to the Yemeni government to intervene immediately to lift the ongoing siege of thousands of people in the "Dar al-Hadeeth" centre in the Dammaj area of Sa'dah, North Yemen. The authorities should further ensure the delivery of food and medical aid to more than three thousand Yemeni families and foreign residents, including children, women, as well as sick and elderly people, who have been besieged for nearly one month and who are acutely lacking food and medecine.

The two organisations call for a quick lifting of this siege given the suffering of the victims whose situation is deteriorating day by day. The Houthi rebels, who launched this siege, are preventing the delivery of food or medical supplies to the area, imposed a curfew on the area's surrounding, preventing anyone from entering or exiting the area, and carrying out nightly attacks on the homes of students' and those of local residents.

The Houthis stopped a food convoy put together by a number of Yemeni cities in the area of Boka on the district's outskirts, despite the intense tribal mediation by men of the Waela tribe.

According to the testimony of the families of the siege victims, the Houthis started targeting the students of Dar al-Hadeeth since the start of the sixth round of the Sa'dah war between the government and the Houthis, which ended in February 2010. They harassed, interrogated and killed students, confiscated their property, and finally besieged them and began shelling them in a two square kilometre area that is surrounded by mountains.

Sheikh Yahya al-Hajoori, the director of the "Dar al-Hadeeth" centre, broadcast an audio statement on his website on Monday 14 November 2011 to appeal for the end of what he described as a "siege and aggression" against them, asking those that hear the appeal to perform their humanitarian duties for the children, women, and the sick whose lives are now endangered.

According to the distress call of "Ahl al-Sunnah" in Dammaj, they have been subjected to many assaults for the last few months, including the confiscation of the "Dar al-Hadeeth" student books, the seizure and confiscation of vehicles that transported the students, physical assault on the students, the confiscation of their property, and abusive behaviour at the Houthi checkpoint at al-Khaneq and other Houthi checkpoints.

The audio statement of "Ahl al-Sunnah" in Dammaj, also stated that "children food's supplies such as milk and biscuits, were confiscated at Houthi checkpoints, under the pretext that they are American supplies. These were then sold in some of the Sa'dah wholesale shops. Mobile phones, computers, cash, and other items were also confiscated."

The audio statement also accused the Houthis of sniping 18 year old student Moaz Yazidi while he played football in the courtyard of "Dar al-Hadeeth" with his colleagues on 4 November 2011. Earlier, a member of the Houthis killed another 15 year old "Dar al-Hadeeth" student Yousef Marzouq Sanani, claiming that he was a member of al-Qaeda who was planning an attack on al-Hadi Mosque.