UNICEF Report – Education Under Fire, September 3, 2015: The images are as arresting as they are incongruous: the pool of fresh blood in the corner of a playground; the shrapnel-scarred blackboard inside a rubble-strewn classroom; the heavily-armed gunmen striding between the rows of empty desks. From Syria to Sudan, from Libya to Yemen, as conflict and political violence surge across the Middle East, schools — and the children and teachers that use them — are finding themselves in the line of fire. A region which — until just a few short years ago – had the goal of universal education well within reach, today faces a disastrous situation: More than 13 million children are not attending school in countries being affected – either directly or indirectly – by armed conflict*. The impact is felt in different ways, all of them painful. It is estimated that there are more than 8,850 schools in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya that can no longer be used because they have been damaged, destroyed, are sheltering displaced families or are occupied by parties to the conflicts. In the Gaza Strip, children use school buildings as shelters because their homes have been destroyed. In Iraq, schools accommodate some of the three million people forced to flee conflict. Across Syria, much of Libya, Sudan and Yemen, parents are not sending their children to school for fear of what might happen to them along the way – or at school itself…”