Families Struggling to Survive in War-Torn Sana’a, Yemen’s Ancient Capital

SH.A.

FRANCE 24’s website had reported about the old city of Sanaa, the country’s ancient capital, which has been blighted by more than four years of war.

For more than 2,500 years, the old city of Sanaa has stood proud on the high plateau of northern Yemen. But as war has blighted the country, swathes of the ancient city have now been pummeled into ruins.

“When the war broke out, even though I survived the bombings, I lost everything, my job, my life,” says Sami Saleh al-Sayani, a tour guide in Yemen’s Old City. “At one point there was hope for Yemen. But the tourists are gone, everything has collapsed.”

Sami leads us through the heart of the old city, where families struggle just to survive amid the ruins of bombing raids.

“We are not interested in politics, we are simple people of the Old City. We have lived here for generations, why are we bombed?”

In 2015 UNESCO placed the old city of Sanaa on its list of endangered World Heritage Sites.

“UNESCO rules are very clear in terms of world heritage protection, to prevent a protected city from becoming a war zone, otherwise it constitutes war crimes,” says Amat Al-Razaaq Jahaf, at the Sanaa heritage center. “But five years have passed, and I have never seen any UN official come to witness these crimes.”

Yemen has been suffering from a Saudi-led military campaign since 2015, which has caused the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, in addition of pushing the impoverished state to the brink of famine, according to a previous statement by the United Nations.

After 4 years of a brutal war, the spokesman of the salvation government has declared that the number of civilians killed till last year it amounted to be 15359 people, while the number of injured is 24121, in a total of 39480 people between killed and injured; in addition to more than 22 million are in vital need of humanitarian aid.