Pupils flee fighting in Yemen
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Two Thai students who fled war-torn Yemen have arrived safely at their hometowns in the deep South, while Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre secretary-general Panu Uthairat wants more than a hundred Thai students in Yemen to return home.
Yala native Fisal Makeh and Narathiwat native Wae-arif Waedosi were greeted warmly at the Yala Train Station yesterday by their relatives as well as Yala Governor Samart Waradisai and Panu. “I lived near the Yemeni capital and could see the fighting within 700 metres from where I stayed so I asked for help to evacuate last week. We travelled out of Yemen by car, which took five days,” Fisal recalled, and thanked all officials who took good care of them and related agencies who brought them home.
Panu said his office had asked locals whose children went to study in Yemen to provide information so they could contact the Thai embassy there to locate them and bring them home, as the war in Yemen had escalated and become highly unpredictable. As of April 1, 126 students from four southernmost provinces were staying in Yemen – 65 from Pattani, 13 from Narathiwat, 22 from Yala and 26 from Songkhla.
