Children brave snipers and mortars to go to school near Yemen front line

What the report says

BBC World News reports from Taiz, Yemen, where children are still trying to attend school despite heavy fighting around the city’s front line. The story focuses on 10-year-old Rafeef, who walks uphill to a school exposed to Houthi sniper positions across the valley. Her family and teachers say the danger has become part of daily life, but she remains determined to keep studying and hopes to become a doctor.

The report says Taiz has long been a major battleground in Yemen’s civil war, with front lines shifting between Houthi forces and fighters aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government. According to the BBC, the Houthis recently cut a key route linking Taiz to Aden, heightening fears that the city could be encircled. Teachers described the risk of shelling and sniper fire as constant, and residents told the BBC that some neighbourhoods have been abandoned because of the fighting.

The article also describes the wider toll on civilians, including children injured or killed in mortar attacks. At a nearby hospital, the BBC saw the aftermath of a strike that killed a three-year-old boy and severely wounded another child, 11-year-old Amjad, who was later judged critical but stable enough for surgery. The reporting underscores how the conflict continues to disrupt schooling, family life and basic movement in one of Yemen’s most contested cities. As background, humanitarian groups have long warned that Yemen’s war has pushed millions of children out of education.