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PART III — COUNTRY PROFILeSthe recruitment campaign focused on teenagers ingrades 8 to 12 on the grounds that they would beeasier to influence than adult recruits. 1737 MuhammadEzan, a political analyst, noted that students andteachers were used as Houthi recruiters in Sa’ada. Headded that there was no evidence of forciblerecruitment or abduction. 1738Attacks on higher educationAttacks on higher education facilitiesThere was one reported direct attack on a highereducation institution during 2009-2012. On 27November 2011, Houthi rebels reportedly killed 20people and wounded 70 others in an attack on a SunniIslamist school in northern Yemen. 1739 The school, Daral-Hadith, an institute for Islamic Salafi teachings,trained Sunni preachers in the Houthi stronghold ofDammaj, Sa’ada governorate. One teacher speculatedthat the attack was motivated by a fear of Sunnisconverting Shias in the area. 1740 It was reported by theSwitzerland-based human rights NGO Alkarama thatthe centre was under siege for two weeks before theattack, preventing the delivery of food and medicalsupplies. 1741 One 18-year-old student was shot on 4November 2011 while playing football with colleaguesin the institute’s courtyard. 1742At Sana’a University, students with opposed politicalstances forcibly shut down their rivals’ classes inMarch 2011. 1743Attacks on higher education students, academicsand personnelBetween February and October 2011, 73 highereducation students were killed nationally and 139wounded, 38 of whom were permanently disabled as aresult of their injuries, according to the WafaOrganization for Martyrs’ Families and WoundedCare. 1744 It is not known how many of these killings andinjuries occurred on campus or in the vicinity of universities,or because the victims were being targeted asstudents. However, the Yemen Students Unionreported that there were some deaths and highnumbers of injuries from gunshot wounds among thestudents camped in Change Square, in front of Sana’aUniversity’s entrance, who were boycotting lectures aspart of a protest demanding a change of president. 1745According to University World News, pro-governmentgunmen killed or injured students protesting near theuniversity, 1746 and clashes erupted in front of theuniversity between students and youths andgovernment supporters armed with daggers andbatons. 1747Military use of higher education facilitiesThere were at least two cases of the use of highereducation facilities by combatants. The First ArmouredDivision rebel forces occupied Sana’a University’s OldCampus in 2011. The university was closed fromFebruary 2011 until January 2012 when the firststudents started to return, but the rebels remained oncampus, even using the cafeteria, until April 2012. 1748From early June to December 2011, Central Securityforces and Republican Guards occupied the SuperiorInstitute for Health Science in Ta’izz, a college forpharmacists and physicians’ assistants that waslocated on high ground. 1749Attacks on education in 2013According to a UN respondent, attacks on schools fellsignificantly in 2013 compared to 2012. 1750 The UNverified that on 23 February, Houthi fighters stormedinto the Imam Hadi primary school in Sharmat,Sa’ada, demanding to keep one prisoner inside theschool temporarily and, when the request wasrefused, opened fire, wounding a teacher; 1751 and thatin July, Houthi rebels armed with machine gunsoccupied a school in Dammaj district. 1752 On 27September 2013, Jabir Ali Hamdan, a teacher at theSa’ada School in Maeen area in Razih, was reportedlyimprisoned and threatened with death after he hadbroken a stick on which the Houthi slogan of Al-Sarkha(‘God is Great/Death to America/Death to Israel/Cursethe Jews/Victory to Islam’ 1753 ) was written. He was laterreleased. 1754There were continuing local media reports of incidentsof Houthi rebels shooting school staff, threateningteachers and taking over schools, mostly in Sa’adagovernorate, 1755 and of attacks on students andteachers by other armed groups or armed gangs inother Yemeni governorates, but these have not beenconfirmed by UN or human rights sources. Theyincluded the shooting of teachers and students as204