Amid financial and moral criticisms surrounding Jazan, a recent United Nations report is raising questions concerning the safety of the campus.
A Feb. 16 report released by the UN Office of Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect on the Saudi Arabian Yemeni conflict stated that “violence in Yemen is already spreading across the border with Saudi Arabia and within the border region.”
Algonquin’s Jazan campus sits only 100 kilometers from the border with Yemen, and has seen violence in the past. Since last March, areas of Jazan province have been subject to shelling from the Yemeni side of the border, in addition to a rocket attack that killed six Saudi soldiers in the region.
Tensions in the area have also been high since a teacher in the Jazan region killed six colleagues and wounded four others at the Ministry of Education building with an automatic weapon on Feb. 11. Although the perpetrator was arrested and had no links to the conflict in the south, it has raised questions regarding general safety in the kingdom.
The Washington Post released a report Feb. 24 on the ever-rising threat in the southern border region, citing the atrocities in the nearby town of Najran, where dozens of schools have been shut down after Grad rocket attacks, and streets are lined with craters left by exploded mortars.
meeting. Jazan was a primary topic of discussion.
Algonquin president Cheryl Jensen said, however, there was no immediate danger to the campus in Jazan, and if problems were to arise action would be taken immediately.
“Another thing that we have monitored constantly is the safety,” said Jensen. “If safety becomes an issue then we have to make a decision on if it is safe to stay there for sure.”
The UN Office of Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect was not immediately available to comment on the situation in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, or the safety of civilians in the area. However, the report provided by the UN concluded “the international community cannot afford to underestimate the risk of a spillover of a conflict that is fueling religious and sectarian divide.”
With the rapid spike in violence in the region, Algonquin faculty OPSEU vice-president Jack Wilson has been asking whether it is safe to continue the operation of the male college, let alone bid for a second female campus in an area that seems to be increasingly plagued by violence.