Schoolchildren join in Yemen protests

By RFI

Sana'a- Mar 8, 2011- Hundreds of schoolchildren joined in demonstrations in Yemen on Tuesday calling for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Protests spread to a tribal area considered to be Saleh's political stronghold, and the military deployed vehicles in the capital.

A police officer was injured by a rock in Ataq, in the southern Shabwa province, after security forces fired warning shots at the crowd that was trying to storm the town’s education ministry offices.

Witnesses said students joined protests in Yemen’s main southern city of Aden. An education ministry official said schools were closed there.

Around 10,000 protesters marched in Dhamar, 60 kilometres south of Sannaa, which is in a tribal area considered to Saleh's political stronghold.

In the capital, Sanaa, military vehicles were deployed around the area where protesters have been camped out for weeks. Police set up water cannons, and placed concrete blocks around the University.

And a prisoner was killed and some 60 people injured when security forces tried to quell a riot at Sanaa's central jail that started Monday

A security official said that the unrest started over alleged mistreatement, but that authorities suspect some political prisoners of inciting inmates to turn the demonstration into an anti-regime protest.

Over the weekend Yemen's opposition called on protests to intensify against the president, who has been in power since 1978 and who has refused their demands to step down by the end of the year.