Amina[1] woke up early on August 13th, 2015, to the sound of a water truck rumbling into her neighborhood. She was five months pregnant and thirsty. She went to the kitchen and uncovered the plastic pail that held the last of the rainwater she had collected a few days ago. Then she immediately covered it again and tried not to retch. It was full of worms. She hurried to put on her black abaya,[2] head scarf, and face veil, and grabbed a bright yellow 20-liter water jug—hoping that the passing water truck had stopped nearby. It could be a week or more before she had a chance to collect fresh water again.
In the city of Taiz, where Amina lived, water had been hard to come by since March of 2015 when sporadic clashes had begun between Yemen’s Houthi militias, who were seeking to seize control of the nation’s major cities, and various resistance forces allied under the banner of Yemen’s Internationally Recognized Government (IRG). As the clashes escalated, the flow of water that used to reach Amina’s home through the city’s pipes had stopped completely and the private water stations where her household used to buy water when the city water ran out were all closed. This left the whole neighborhood dependent on water trucks that charitable people sent them for relief. But it was never enough, and sometimes the truck was empty by the time it was Amina’s turn to fill her jug. As she headed out her gate that August morning, she was thankful to see the water truck at a standstill a few blocks away and only a few dozen men, women, and children ahead of her. Neighbors she had known all her life were swarming the vehicle, jostling and shouting as they scrambled to fill their jugs.
Amina was trying to quicken her pace, knowing others could still reach the truck ahead of her, when the hope of life-giving water suddenly exploded into horror. Two large artillery shells came shrieking down out of the clear August sky, crashing into the water truck and instantly obscuring it with dust and smoke that filled the street. The cries of Amina’s neighbors sounded far away in her ringing ears as blood and water ran towards the spot where she stood frozen. Then Amina realized that she was shrieking, too. A dazed man stumbled out of the dust cloud with his daughter in his arms and her intestines exposed. Meanwhile, other men were racing past Amina into the dust and smoke to aid the injured, when another shell blasted into their midst, and then another—adding those first rescuers to the casualties.
Amina would later learn that five people had died and 38 were injured[3] by the shells that fell in her neighborhood that day. For over a week afterwards, everyone stayed in their homes. Afraid. When people did begin to go out again, it was only because they had to, for essentials. Life did not return. Instead, residents of Taiz continued to see much of the worst of the indiscriminate violence that has occurred over the course of Yemen’s war as civilians were killed and injured by rockets and landmines deployed by the Houthis[4] as well as imprecise airstrikes from Saudi planes.[5] Eventually, the terror reigning down on Taiz from above would subside somewhat, as the warring parties dug in along deadlocked frontlines and almost entirely cut the city off from the outside world. Amina and other residents of Taiz have now endured these siege-like conditions for more than 3,000 days, with no respite from the terrors of hunger and thirst.
“At every corner of the city most families are living on one meal a day and the humanitarian organizations cannot reach them easily because of the siege,” says Amina, who is still without a reliable source of water.
The 6,120,000 cubic meters of water that used to fill Taiz city’s reservoirs annually has been reduced by almost 90 percent to 648,000 under the siege, according to the IRG.[6] “The water shortage caused many diseases to spread, such as cholera,” says Amina. “Those that didn’t die from the shelling, died from diseases.”
Amina developed diabetes before she gave birth to Bashir, the son that she was carrying on the day she witnessed the shelling of the water truck. They now share the condition and Amina attributes this to the shock she experienced during the traumatic event.
“I’ll never be able to forget what I saw with my own eyes,” says the mother of three. “Children who used to play beside our house were shredded into pieces in an instant and lovely young people died without warning—this is something the human mind cannot comprehend.”
At seven years old, Bashir has spent his entire life in an isolated city of extreme hunger, thirst, and bloodshed that stands in sharp contrast to Taiz’s historic reputation for moderation. Nestled in the shadow of Saber Mountain, Taiz’s temperate climate has been mirrored for generations by its friendly people who enjoyed safe streets and frequent social gatherings. “Taiz was known as the city of culture and learning, because most residents were educated,” Amina explains. “Women shopped in the markets and no one bothered them, shops stayed open late, children played on the neighborhood streets, and the cafes were filled with young and old.”
Now, Amina says, the streets are lifeless. No fuel is available, so there is no transportation, and no one moves about. “In Taiz you live waiting for the moment of your death,” she explains.
The physical and psychological suffering that Taizis like Amina have experienced since 2015 has been well-documented. In 2016, Mwatana for Human Rights[7] included the indiscriminate attack on the water truck in Amina’s neighborhood, Wadi Al Madam, in its report Chapters from Hell.[8] Later, in 2022, Yemen’s Belqees TV returned to the neighborhood and interviewed relatives of victims and witnesses of the tragedy once again.[9] Over the years various international reporters have found their way into Taiz and told the tales of the dehumanizing realities of daily life under siege. Still, after 3,000 days, the political will to end the siege remains absent. Amina believes this is due to Taiz’s strategic geographic location between Yemen’s tribal north and colonial south, as well as it’s access to the three ports of Aden, Mukha, and Hodeidah. However, she says its main importance to Yemen’s warring parties is its people, who accounted for over 12 percent of Yemen’s population before the war. “Taiz has the largest population of any province in Yemen and because of this, whoever controls Taiz will control a great human force,” Amina explains. “Also, because the people of Taiz are educated they have a lot of influence—whoever gains control over the people of Taiz will be able to influence the rest of the country as Taizis are everywhere. There’s not an inch of Yemen where you won’t find a Taizi.”
For more than 3,000 days, the circulation of Yemenis in and out of the warm heart of Taiz has been slowed to a trickle and a city that was once an incubator for human rights work in Yemen, continues to endure some of the most devastating abuses of the war. Unleashing Taiz from the death grip of the siege will not only begin the process of restoring the dignity of the Taizi people, but it will also restore a key artery that has long connected the nation at the intersection of tradition and progress through the moderating influence of the Taizi people.
[1] Names changed to protect a vulnerable household living within the siege of Taiz.
[2] A long dress that is usually black and worn by Yemeni women over the top of other clothes when they leave their home.
[3] https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-houthis-shell-civilians-southern-city
[4] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66258171
[5] https://www.npr.org/2023/07/17/1188183461/after-the-death-of-his-family-one-mans-search-for-justice-in-yemens-civil-war
[6] https://www.albawaba.com/news/yemeni-activists-launch-e-campaign-solidarity-besieged-taiz-city-1526557
[7] An independent Yemeni organization concerned with defending and protecting human rights.
[8] https://mwatana.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Chapter-from-hell.pdf
[9] https://www.facebook.com/belqees.tv/videos/963650304286038/?extid=WA-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&mibextid=2Rb1fB&ref=sharing
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