“This war is destroying Yemenis”

The people of Yemen have become painfully accustomed to suffering

The war will shortly enter its fourth year. It is a grim milestone for Yemenis, who face the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

Yemen was already the poorest country in the Middle East when the conflict broke out in March 2015. A heart-breaking 85,000 children are estimated to have since died from extreme hunger, and over 14 million people are thought to be facing starvation.

Millions have fled their homes. Families are setting up makeshift homes wherever they can find available land – in the desert, in abandoned buildings, and on garbage dumps where they can forage for scraps.

Others, like Abdu Muqbel Thabet, 65, and his family, are struggling in one of the country’s many camps for displaced people. They fled their home in Hodeida two years ago, after Abdu’s wife and aunt were badly injured in the fighting.

Conditions in the camp are dire – it is cold, and there is no clean water and no basic services. Still, the family are too afraid to go home.

“I thought about going back but my relatives there told me that there is fighting again and they can’t sleep for the sounds of the planes,” Abdu said. “I told them I will not return until the end of the war.

“I hope [for] reconciliation and [to] stop war and destruction. It is destroying all Yemenis.”

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/war-destroying-yemenis