On the global roster of divided cities – from Belfast to Nicosia – Taiz in Yemen is one of the less well-known, but possibly the most recent. The frontline of the Yemeni civil war has run through the city since 2015. Earning it the unhappy nickname of ‘sniper city’.
Taiz has a dramatic setting on the side of Yemen’s tallest mountain, Jabal Sabir, and boasts a vertiginous castle on a mountain spur. But its residents face many issues caused by the conflict. The main highway to Aden is cut by the frontlines – meaning people and goods have to use rough improvised roads to reach the city. Water supplies are largely on the other side of the battle lines.
And in the neighbourhoods that were most fought over there is widespread destruction. Buildings have been flattened by airstrikes and artillery, abandoned homes are peppered with bullet holes. Cars and mini-buses have been ploughed into street barricades. The no-man’s land between the forces are mined and booby-trapped. Drones buzz overhead and at night there is the crackle of sporadic gunfire.
Yet people live here. People have returned to Salah and other districts close to the no-man's land running through the city because poverty has forced them back.
“People have moved into buildings that have been struck with multiple missiles,” says Samar Al Shargbi, who works in HALO’s Taiz office. “There are people next to my family home who have just covered the holes and windows and live without power or water.”
HALO has been one of the few international NGOs working in Taiz for the last five years, clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance from the streets and damaged buildings.
Fatima Kassim has been able to return and visit her frontline flat after HALO removed an unexploded projectile that punctured one of her walls. The hole, stuffed with plastic bags, waits to be repaired, as does the spray of bullet damage on her balcony. Yet Fatima is still too scared to live full-time in her home.
Fatima Kassim
“The effects of the war continue to traumatise people here,” says Fatima. “Like anyone, all we want is to be able to live in a safe home and in a safe community.”
The loss suffered by Dalila Abdo Ahmed because of the conflict has been more profound. Her family were landowners on the edge of the city near the frontlines. On her wedding day in 2018 she was trying to reach her new husband’s family home when she and two cousins walked into a minefield.
Dalila suffered a double amputation of both legs below the knee. She was rescued by her father who heard her cries – the mines were close to the family home. In time five other victims were killed and injured by the same minefield.
For Dalila there was more cruelty. While she was fighting for her life in intensive care, her new husband took her father to court seeking a return of the customary bride price, sometimes known as the mahr. He then divorced her immediately. The reason the husband did not come to Dalila’s home to collect her, as would be traditional, was because he was scared of being caught by soldiers.
Dalila Abdo Ahmed
“I feel a grief. A loss for my youth and the loss of a chance to have a family. We are displaced in Taiz city and our family home is now occupied by soldiers from the other side.”
Dalila has struggled to find prosthetics in Taiz that allow her to move with comfort and lives with her parents and sister in some isolation, despite being in the centre of the city. “I have told my story several times”, she says. “But it doesn’t seem to bring any help.”
HALO's work in Yemen is supported by
