Sana’a: Unlike their peers who enjoy considerable peace and tranquility in other religious schools across Yemen, foreign religious students who study in the small northern village of Damaj have been embroiled in armed clashes.
Founded 35 years ago by a prominent Yemeni ultraconservative Islamic scholar called Mogbel Al Wadi’i, Dar Al Hadith Religious School in Yemen’s northern province of Saada, has become a magnet for many foreign students. There is no accurate figure on the number of foreign students in the school, but officials say there are 12,000 students, including foreigners.
However, in an area predominately controlled by Shiite Al Houthi rebels, the arch-enemy of the Salafists, who are Sunnis, the foreign students had to abandon their books and participate in sporadic armed sectarian shoot-outs with Al Houthis.
The Al Houthis or Ansar Allah as they call themselves, who fought six wars with the government during the reign of the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2004-2010, deem the religious school as a hotbed for attracting and recruiting foreign “jihadists”.
“Most of those Arab and non-Arab students in the school are fighters disguised as students in Damaj,” Ali Al Bakheeti, Al Houthi spokesman, told Gulf News.
But Salafists insist that the foreign students are not fighters and have been living in the area for ages.
“Those foreign students have been living in Damaj since the establishment of the school 35 years ago. They got married to local women and fully integrated in the local society.” Surur Al Wadi’i, Salafist spokesman, told Gulf News from the religious school.
Appeal
In an apparent attempt to attract the attention of the international community to their ordeal, Al Wadi’i sent on Wednesday an appeal to foreign countries that have citizens in Damaj to quickly step in to rescue their subjects from Al Houthi bombardment.
“We cannot protect your citizens. We are witnessing a war of extermination from [Al] Houthis,” Al Wadi’i said, adding that the besieged foreign students are from the EU, Canada, USA, Russia, GCC, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, China and Sri Lanka.
Al Houthi rebels say that the flow of foreign fighters to Damaj has forced their fighters and pro-Al Houthi tribesmen to take arms to stop them. Al Bakheeti said that the fighting broke out when armed foreign fighters were stationed in mountains in Damaj that overlook areas controlled by Al Houthis.
“Our fighting is not with Salafism as an ideology. It is with those radical foreign fighters who have been brought to Damaj in the last two and a half years.”
The Shiites put two conditions to halt clashes.
Al Bakheeti said: “First, we demand the state remove foreign fighters from all posts around Damaj. Second, we demand the ministry of interior and passport department inspect the foreigners in Damaj to determine their identities and whether they are staying legally in the country.”
Responding to the accusation, Al Wadi’i said that those foreign students came to Yemen with their countries’ consent and passed through Yemeni airports. “The state, not [Al] Houthi is responsible for punishing them if they violated laws.”
Al Wadi’i said that 10-20 foreign students have been killed or injured in the latest wave of fighting.
Gulf News has tried many times to get through to one of the foreign students in the school, but Al Wadi’i apologised, saying that they were under siege in their accommodation.
But a Yemeni student, who preferred to be known as Abu Esmail, said that the school has been under heavy shelling since October 30.
“Artillery is falling and snipers are stationed everywhere. We cannot go out.”
The Salafists said that the Al Houthis bombarded Damaj heavily since it did not bow down to them.
“The [Al] Houthis managed to suppress all areas in Saada except Salafists.” said Al Wadi’i who did not deny that some of the foreign students are taking part in the fighting. “Our students have been forced to take arms. They are in a state of self-defence.”
Figures
Dr Ahmad Al Wadi’i, a local medic who runs a makeshift hospital in the religious school, told Gulf News by telephone that the continuing shelling by Al Houthis have claimed the lives of dozens of people and obstructed food, medicine and water supplies to the area.
“The number of the killed are eight children, 43 men and a woman, in addition to 38 missing people. Also, 30 children, 161 men and nine women have been injured since October 30,”
“Many women had miscarriages and drinking water has mixed with sewage. We have received 50 cases of acute diarrhoea cases among children.”
Al Wadi’i said that Damaj’s main hospital was damaged in the shelling and they had to turn granaries into shelters
“The biggest shelter houses 1,000 women and 200 children. They live in a miserable condition with no fresh air, no bathrooms, no light.”
The doctor did not give any figures for how many foreign students have been treated in his hospital.
The Al Houthis said that ongoing battles have killed and injured tens of their fighters and their allied tribesmen.
The Al Houthis denied that they had imposed a siege on Damaj. “There is a siege by Ansar Allah only on the flow of weapons and fighters, not food. The Salafists would have died if they are under siege. How can thousands of people survive without food for a week?” Al Bakheeti said.
Mediation
In the second attempt to strike a deal between the Al Houthis and Salafists, government media reported on Thursday that the head of the presidential mediation committee, Yahya Mansour Abu Isba’a, said that the two rivals agreed to stop fighting. The official news agency quoted Abu Isba’a as saying that army troops will be deployed in the disputing mountains.
But Dr Ahmad told Gulf News from Damaj that the Al Houthis did not stop shelling even after the announcement of the ceasefire.
“A Katyusha rocket has just hit near a house in Damaj. The shelling did not stop. There is no ceasefire,” he said.
