A crowd of young male and female students, most of them in their twenties, standing in groups of varying numbers in front of the gate of Sana’a University, while the afternoon sun shines on their faces that show signs of weariness, anticipation, and sometimes agitation; They wait for one of the public transportation (buses), hoping for a vacant seat, scrambling for it like booty, even if some of them have to be standing or hanging on the side of the bus door.
This scene, which has become repeated daily, is only part of a total suffering experienced by Yemeni university students and most citizens of the capital, Sana’a, and other cities of the country, due to the fuel crisis, which reached its supreme climax - since the outbreak of the war - at the beginning of March of this year 2022. On the other hand, it led to a crisis in public transportation and doubled its prices.
The current fuel crisis comes as a cumulative extension of a series of fuel catastrophes that Yemenis have been up against since nearly seven years of conflict in the country, and some warring parties’ use of the oil derivatives card in political maneuvers and factional interests.
The emergency rise in public transportation prices had significantly affected a large percentage of university students who were forced by poverty and lack of resources to refrain from attending their lectures, or walking long distances, after the doubled price of transportation costs has become a challenge in front of them.
Although the consequences of the high public transportation fare negatively affected almost all students and their attendance at colleges, female (students) were more affected by virtue of the specificity of circumstances and the difficulty of adapting to the new changes imposed by the crisis.
Kamal Abdo (24 years old), a student in the fifth level at the Faculty of Human Medicine at Sana’a University, told “Khuyut” that five days ago he has had only one meal a day in order to save transportation costs, which cost him more than two-thirds of his simple daily expenses due to the far distance between his place of residence and the locations of the practical lectures that he must attend in a number of government hospitals in Sana'a.
Additionally, he refers to the burden of transportation costs in view of the nature of the study this year, as he says: "This year is an applied year; we are divided into groups, each group attends with its supervisor doctor according to the type of course; anatomy, surgery, dermatology, obstetrics, during which we move between hospitals: Kuwait, the seventieth, Al-Thawrah, the Al-Jomhori.” Therefore, transporting from one facility to another requires high costs with public transportation.
He adds: "Two weeks ago, I spent an average of one thousand riyals for the daily transportation, but now I have to pay an additional thousand on top of it, and this is beyond my current ability! However, you have no choice but to give up your most important life necessities until God brings relief."
Kamal states that recently he is an hour ahead of the lectures; In order to avoid the “boring delay” that has become a habit of bus drivers and their frequent stops every few meters to gather more passengers. He explained that the practical lecture system requires strict punctuality otherwise the student is denied entry if he/she is five minutes late from the start of the lecture.
As for his colleagues, he says that a week ago, a third of the students had been absent from lectures due to transportation, "My group consists of 19 students, our number now does not exceed 12 students only, the situation has become beyond the tolerance of some colleagues, and unfortunately no one cares."
The escalating fuel crisis and its consequences for the rise in public transportation fares have put the Sana'a authorities in great embarrassment, despite their perceived indifference to the suffering of people in their areas of control and the severe suffering they are experiencing with the unprecedented escalation of living crises.
The drivers of internal public transport vehicles and buses in Sana’a raised the transportation fare from 100 riyals to 200 riyals for the “one journey” (single trip), with the fuel catastrophe entering its third month without any solutions to the crisis. Nevertheless, an official at the Yemeni Oil Company in Sana’a reports that it will provide free fuel for some buses to work for those who can't pay the transportation fare.
Female students are more affected
Although the consequences of the high public transportation fare negatively affected almost all students and their attendance at colleges, girls (students) were more affected by the specificity of circumstances and the difficulty of adapting to the new changes imposed by the crisis.
Youmna Al-Husseini (20 years), an information systems student at the UAE University, located in Faj Attan (southwest of Sana’a) while she lives on Al-Asbahi Street - the round-trip distance between her home and the university used to cost her 600 riyals per day; currently, she is paying double the amount (1,200 riyals), for transportation only, according to Youmna statement to "Khuyut".
Al-Hassani pointed out that the fuel crisis has amplified the suffering of students in general, and not only with regard to transportation. Two weeks ago, she added, denouncing: “We no longer know what we can do, save our transportation expenses or spend it to meet our food needs!?”
As for Nisreen (20 years), a graphics and multimedia student at the Yemeni University, she asks nervously: "What a miserable this situation that we have reached?! We are no longer even able to exercise our natural right guaranteed to us to education, or to go naturally to university every day, because of the high transportation prices".
Almost empty studying halls
Throughout her three years of her studies at the College of Sharia and Law, the student Hanan al-Madami (21 years old), attended daily - except for vacation days - to her college from the district of Bani Hushaish (far east of Sana'a), despite the transportation crises that occurred from time to time, but this time crisis became sever and harsh for her.
Speaking to "Khuyut", Al-Madamami says: "I stopped going to college, because I can no longer afford the transportation costs because I come every day from Bani Hushaish to Sana'a University. Unfortunately, I will continue to be absent until the crisis subsides, or any solutions was provided for us as students as we are the most affected at the moment.”
Sorour Wasel (22 years old female student), who is a classmate of "Al Madame" at the same academic level, told "Khuyut": "The lecture halls have become almost empty; some of my colleagues refrained from attending lectures for the same reason, especially since most of them suffer from difficult financial conditions, including those who told me that they had to stay without breakfast to save the cost of transportation back from college to home.”
Under the pressure of the crushing crisis and its repercussions on students, a group of students from the faculties of computer and languages at Sana’a University (from all levels) began signing a protest petition calling for the suspension of studies until the crisis ends, or a solution to the students’ inability to attend lectures due to their failure to pay the high transportation costs.
Moreover, the fourth-level student in the Department of Translation, Mohammad Sawar (24 years old), who is one of the members of the protest petition campaign, confirmed to "Khuyut" that more than 40% of the students who study with him in the same collage are absent from lectures; because they have become helpless in the face of the increase in transportation prices, which have become beyond their financial ability.
Overburdened
The impact of the fuel crisis for university students was not limited to the increase in transportation fares only, but also extended to all aspects related to student services, such as stationery and application tools whose prices have witnessed an increase corresponding to the rise in fuel prices. It added a double burden on all university students, especially learners of advanced stages in the faculties of agriculture, architecture, and dentistry, who are forced to purchase the applied learning materials required by their specialization continuously throughout the year.
Further, the matter does not stop here, but goes beyond affecting the students’ families, whose financial hardship has multiplied in providing for the expenses of their children who study in universities, at a time when they are desperately struggling to provide the minimum basics of living in light of the impossibility of sources of earning and interruption of salaries of employees in the public sector.
Like every time the country experiences a fuel crisis, the noose tightens more on Yemenis, most of whom are unable to provide the minimum of their basic living needs, in light of the sharp rise in the prices of basic commodities, the lack of job opportunities, and the economic crises that afflict the public and private sectors in the country. Such impacts would deepen the human suffering of millions of Yemenis of various segments and economic classes, who are currently reeling between two hells; war, and high prices.
