Conflict in Yemen: 'I hope we can go home soon'

Conflict in Yemen has forced thousands of people to flee their homes, including Oxfam staff. It is pushing the country towards economic collapse and making life harder for 16 million people already in need of humanitarian aid. Here programme officer Bassim describes how the crisis has changed his life.

It is impossible not to worry about my country and the human suffering that the war has caused as I live and work through this awful period of Yemen’s history. That’s why I want to share my story. Latest figures tell us that over 640 people have been killed during the current crisis, including more than 300 civilians, and over 2,200 have been injured.
 

People search for survivors under the rubble of houses destroyed by Saudi airstrikes near Sanaa Airport, Yemen, Thursday, March 26, 2015.
(Photo: Abo Haitham)

As a result of the ongoing conflict, I was forced to move my wife and children from Sana’a to the countryside where I grew up. Relocating my family at a time when there is no fuel and no safe roads to travel by was an unbelievable tragedy for us. My children cried all the way and my wife was very afraid of the sudden changes in the midst of this ongoing war.

Before the current crisis, over 60 percent of the population – 16 million people – were already in need of some form of aid. Now, people are facing even more drastic changes of fortune. People’s incomes have dropped dramatically.

My life has changed completely. In my village I have to try and find flour and other food to make sure there’s enough for my family’s needs, and fuel. It is a story I can see across the country. Even before the crisis, more than 10 million Yemenis did not have enough food to eat, including 850,000 malnourished children. In some areas we are even reaching emergency levels for acute malnutrition rates.

Yemenis help to push a car as they line up in a queue at a petrol station amid fuel shortages in Sanaa, Yemen, April 8, 2015.
(Photo: Abo Haitham)
 

So many things are different now. Clean water is a huge problem for us, as water systems have stopped because of the fuel crisis. Already, before the crisis over 13 million people didn’t have access to clean water, who knows how many don’t have access now.

My children can’t go to school. My wife, like many other women, has to bear new and difficult responsibilities. Even simple tasks like cooking have become so much harder.

The changes we’re going through are really tough. I now have to work from home, trying to provide for my family at the same time – all the while thinking of my home in Sana’a and worrying that gangs will break in and steal from us while we’re gone.

It is part of Yemeni tradition that I am responsible not only for my immediate family – my wife and sons – but also for my extended family, which has over 20 members. You can imagine how big a responsibility this is – and you can also imagine how my budget has been hit by increased prices of food and lack of essentials for me to buy.

I hope we can go back to our home in Sana’a soon.