Yemen - Forgotten war

Aden 15/07

CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/30/world/cnnphotos-aden-yemen-besieged/

Every 10 minutes, a randomly targeted shell explodes, rattling the windows and doors in Aden's city center. Once a bustling port in Yemen, Aden has been reduced to rubble, ravaged by the incessant shelling of the Houthi militia that has the city surrounded.
Photographer Guillaume Binet landed in Aden in late June and spent nearly two weeks taking riveting photos of the besieged city.

"I was there during Ramadan, and there was bombing, shelling and fighting all day," Binet said. "It got particularly worse at 6:30 or 7 p.m. when everyone would leave their houses to break the fast. The Houthis would fire lots of rockets then. Everyone sleeps in the city center to avoid the shelling, but each time a bomb falls, it kills a family.
"The women spend their days looking for food, the men are expected to fight and defend the city. The kids are really just alone in the streets. When they turn 14, the boys are given Kalashnikovs and are expected to fight as well."

The Houthis, backed by Iran, are Shiite Muslims who have long felt marginalized in the majority Sunni country. Many of them are allied with Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former Yemeni President who resigned after protests in 2011.
In 2014, the Houthis captured Sanaa, Yemen's capital, and have since advanced south toward Aden, claiming most of the western part of the country.
Since March, Aden has been under siege, forcing the current president, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, to flee his palace. Fearing another Shiite-dominated state in the region, Saudi Arabia began airstrikes on the Houthis to restore Hadi to power and fight off what they perceive to be Iranian aggression by proxy. The Southern Resistance, backed by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition, is fighting to hold on to Aden's surrounded city center.
"People in the city center have been shelled for a few months," Binet said. "They live in their apartments, and when the shelling starts they go to the basements. They are used to it.

The women spend their days looking for food, the men are expected to fight and defend the city. The kids are really just alone in the streets.

 

in french on France Inter : https://www.franceinter.fr/monde/temoignage-exceptionnel-yemen-la-descen...

 

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Yemen - Forgotten war

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