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PART III — COUNTRY PROFILeS<br />
A number of schools in Al Sareif Beni Hussein locality<br />
in North Darfur were reportedly damaged or destroyed<br />
by looting and arson during fighting between the Beni<br />
Hussein and Abbala tribes in the first half of the<br />
year. 1522<br />
Media sources reported that at least one secondary<br />
school student was shot dead and another 10 or more<br />
injured as police armed with tear gas and live<br />
ammunition attempted to disperse protesters demonstrating<br />
over the increased cost of requirements for<br />
sitting for the Sudan Secondary School Leaving<br />
Certificate. 1523 Another student was killed and four<br />
more were injured outside a National Service centre<br />
while waiting to obtain a seal required for their<br />
university applications when a soldier fired live<br />
ammunition after students had reportedly become<br />
impatient over delays and perceived corruption. 1524<br />
Arrests and injury of university students by security<br />
forces continued in 2013. By the end of September, at<br />
least 11 university students had been injured 1525 and<br />
another 65 arrested. 1526<br />
In one incident in May, nine students sustained<br />
injuries after being shot on the main campus of El<br />
Fasher University, North Darfur. The students had<br />
reportedly been attending a meeting when an<br />
estimated 70 armed student militia members entered<br />
the campus, trying to garner support for a government<br />
‘mobilization’ campaign against armed opposition<br />
groups. When the students failed to react, clashes<br />
broke out and the militia group began firing into the<br />
air, wounding one student. As students attempted to<br />
flee, they were met at the campus gate by police and<br />
NISS forces who began firing live ammunition into the<br />
crowd, wounding eight more. 1527<br />
In September, some 22 Darfuri students were arrested<br />
and several injured after security forces stormed the<br />
campus of the University of Peace in Babanusa, West<br />
Kordofan, to break up a sit-in protesting against a<br />
university policy requiring Darfuri students to pay<br />
tuition fees, despite a political agreement 1528<br />
exempting them from doing so. The police reportedly<br />
used live ammunition, tear gas, batons and air rifles<br />
against protesters. 1529 The university subsequently<br />
banned 30 Darfuri students from the university for a<br />
period ranging from one to two years. 1530<br />
SYRIA<br />
Schools were attacked in numerous locations. By early<br />
2013, up to 1,000 schools had allegedly been used as<br />
detention or torture centres and 2,445 were reported<br />
damaged or destroyed, although it is not known how<br />
many were targeted. Attacks on universities caused<br />
very heavy casualties. 1531<br />
Context<br />
Tensions rose in Syria beginning in March 2011. Some<br />
of the first protests were sparked by the arrest and<br />
torture of 15 boys who painted revolutionary slogans<br />
on their school wall. After security forces killed several<br />
protesters, more took to the streets, calling for<br />
President Bashar al-Assad to step down. 1532 By July<br />
2011, hundreds of thousands of people were demonstrating<br />
across the country. 1533 Security forces clamped<br />
down, targeting specific groups, including schoolchildren<br />
and students. During 2011 and 2012, the<br />
government gradually lost control of parts of the<br />
country to the Free Syrian Army and other groups<br />
including the Al-Nusra Front. According to the Syrian<br />
Observatory for Human Rights, continuing conflict had<br />
left more than 125,000 people dead by December<br />
2013. 1534 Bombings, killings, targeted attacks, arbitrary<br />
arrests, torture, abductions and sexual violence led to<br />
large-scale displacement of people and an unfolding<br />
humanitarian disaster. 1535<br />
Education was hit hard by the war. Net primary<br />
enrolment in 2011, the year the conflict began, was 93<br />
per cent, 1536 net secondary enrolment was 68 per<br />
cent, 1537 gross tertiary enrolment was 26 per cent 1538<br />
and adult literacy was 84 per cent. 1539 The UN reported<br />
in April 2013 that an estimated 2,445 of the country’s<br />
22,000 schools were damaged or destroyed and 1,889<br />
were being used as IDP shelters instead of for educational<br />
purposes. 1540 Some 69 of 118 UNRWA schools for<br />
Palestinian refugees were also closed. 1541 A report by<br />
the Syrian Network for Human Rights, based in<br />
London, said 450 schools had been completely<br />
destroyed. 1542 By September 2013, almost two million<br />
children aged 6 to 15 had dropped out of school<br />
because of conflict and displacement. 1543<br />
The Assad regime kept tight control over the education<br />
system. The Ba’ath party had a security unit<br />
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