With its walls pounded by artillery, roofs torn open and concrete beams in shreds, Al-Wehdah school lies in ruins as students return for the first day of Yemen’s school year.
At the school near Taez, the third-biggest city in a country shattered by years of war between the government and Iran-backed Huthi rebels, there are no doors or windows, let alone desks.
Instead the students use old exercise books to jot down their lessons, as they sit in makeshift classrooms with a handful of teachers brave enough to join them under crumbling ceilings.
Yet in a country where nearly a third of children don’t go to school at all, these are the lucky ones.
Al-Wehdah school was hit in a 2016 air strike.
Ali Sultan, a parent of one of the students, points out to AFP a warning sign in red letters written on a perimeter wall.
“Beware of Mines,” it reads.
The school is located in the middle of a minefield, that was partially cleared to allow the students to return.