Almost 15 years ago, I was based in Damascus, Syria, as a freelance photographer and was lucky to get to know Yemen before the civil war that started at the end of 2014. I went there a few times, freely, from north to south, and fell in love with the country, which was little known from the outside.
Young people play pool in one of the main streets of Aden, with damaged buildings behind, in 2021. Once cosmopolitan and buzzing, Aden is a poor city that carries the signs of war everywhere
When the war started, the few reports from there were mainly about conflict, so I decided to go back several times to give my personal view and angle to a story that was very important to me. My goal is to try to give dignity to this country. It’s impossible to talk about Yemen nowadays without talking about destruction, bombings and terrorism, but I also want to highlight its extreme richness: its breathtaking landscapes, its unique architecture and cultural heritage, the strength of the people, especially women, and the fact that Yemen has several Unesco sites that are now in danger.
I’d like to make Yemen closer to the people from outside so that they not only have an idea of a faraway country ravaged by war, but a country full of history, mystery and beauty.
The opposing Socotran and Yemenite factions are clashing more and more often in the streets of Hadibo, the urban centre of the island of Socotra a Unesco-protected site. Backed by the United Arab Emirates, the Socotrain faction (in picture with Southern Transitional Council flags in 2019) calls for the separation of southern Yemen (including Socotra) from the north of the country, while the other wishes to maintain the nation’s integrity, a unified Yemen
Adenium obesum socotranum, known as the bottle tree, is one of the many endemic trees on the island of Socotra
However, it is important also to give a bit of context about what is happening there. At the end of the summer of 2014, a coup carried out by rebel Houthi forces happened in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen.
Who are they? In the early 2000s, a small militia of people following Zaydism, a variant of Shia Islam, was established in Yemen. They followed Hussein Badreddine al-Houthi, an activist who used to denounce the so-called betrayal of his people by a government he accused of siding with the US and Israel.
Since the start of the war, thousands of civilian have disappeared in the north, arrested, kidnapped, or killed by the Houthis without judgment or proof of their guilt. In an attempt to find their missing relatives a group of Yemeni women founded the Abductees’ Mothers Association in 2016 in Aden. Pictured is Loula Ahmad with a photo of her son Ali, jailed in Sana’a in 2016 – Ali was arrested by the Houthis while sitting in a coffee shop with friends, accused of being a mercenary of the coalition. Ahmad has had no news of her son for eight months
The government at the time, led by the dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, president for 30 years, tried to subdue the mutineers with violent repression. In 2004, Houthi was killed by the army but his supporters immortalised him by taking his name.
Years later, in the middle of the Arab spring of 2011, pro-democracy protests weakened the government. The Houthis joined, some say hijacked, the demonstrations.
Surrounded by a fortified wall, the 16th-century city of Shibam is one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction. Its impressive tower-like structures, all made out of mudbrick, rise out of the cliff and have given the city the nickname ‘Manhattan of the desert’. Pictured here in 2019, it is a Unesco world heritage site
In this chaotic context, Houthis seized towns in the north of the country at the end of 2014 and, step by step, the rebels ruled the north they occupied using violent means.
Saudi Arabia and a coalition of other Muslim countries gathered in March 2015 to restore the Yemeni government and kick out the rebels. But after almost a decade of war, the coalition has failed to eradicate the rebellion and hundreds of civilians have been killed.
Members of the Assougour Brigade, part of the Yemeni national army, gather in a location in the desert before reaching the frontlines near Al Jubah, a desert area about 50km south of the city of Marib, in 2022
Mohammed Ali Shedadi, 41, commander of the 7th Brigade armed forces, at the frontline in Raghwan, a desert village a few hours north of the city of Marib. He has set up a small military camp. An AZP S-60 cannon pointed in the direction of the Houthis, who are positioned just 3 miles away, is hidden on the side of the hill. He admits to being in contact with the coalition in the event of an attack. ‘When it’s intense we call the Saudi air force, but we have the advantage over them because we know the geography better. Our desert is their hell.’
Anti-Houthi forces under the umbrella of the Yemeni government are slowly breaking apart into different warlord factions financed by the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Abu Dhabi supported a different southern separatist movement, which in August 2019 decided to attack its own government in Aden to claim the independence of the south. All these conflicts caused the displacement of more than 4 million people.
After the battle for control of Aden in 2015, the city has changed from a cosmopolitan and lively place to a gloomy city marked by war wounds, overwhelmed by an economic crisis. Gatherings on the beach, for horse riding, quad riding, kiting, swimming, or simply walking and chatting seem to be the only moment of leisure for an exhausted population, Yemen, 2021
Life goes on in Aden. Young men offer horse riding on the beach to families on their holidays. To attract local tourists, they try to perform with their horses.
Further north, in the province of Marib, the last northern stronghold controlled by the government, 2 million displaced people from all over Yemen have made the provincial capital one of the most populated cities in the country.
Local families flock to the areas of the ancient Marib dam for picnics and refreshing baths. This kind of outdoor activity, in areas not far from the frontlines, is a recent activity. Life in the city of Marib is normalising, internal security is excellent, and the city is booming, even if the war is just a few kilometres away
Saïf Nasser Muthana, in charge of displaced populations in Marib, says it has welcomed 12,000 displaced families due to the Houthi offensives of 2021. “We now have 189 camps in the city and in the Wadi (valley),” he said. “We provide the minimum services for these people because more than half of our budget goes to the war effort. Our challenge is to connect these camps to electricity and to build schools, so the children finally have an education.”
Muthana said that in 2022, humanitarian aid decreased by 75%. “Despite all our difficulties, the tribes received Yemenis from all over without racism. These displaced people come with skills and knowledge that have enabled the city to develop.”
Internally displaced people in al-Muthaf camp, located in the heart of Marib. In the early months of the civil war Marib emerged as a safe haven for internally displaced people fleeing Houthi-controlled areas and the Saudi coalition bombing. The city’s small prewar population of about 400,000 is estimated to have grown to between 1.5 million and 3 million people, with the bulk of the new arrivals settling in the city
While the north of the country is falling into a violent theocracy under the leadership of Houthi rebels and the south is held by separatists supported by the Emirates and sliding to a repressive administration, Marib has is own political aspirations.
A gathering of Mourad tribe fighters in the house of Sheikh Mufarah Buhaibeh, leader of the tribe in Al-Jouba, south of Marib. They are fighters by tradition but they claim the only reason they are fighting against the Houthis is that they are forced to because the Houthis are trying to take their land. A month after this 2021 photo was taken this same home was captured by Houthi forces, the sheikh was injured and his family and the rest of the tribe were forced to flee
In charge of the city since 2012, the governor, Sultan Ali al-Arada, is trying to build a model of a new Yemen.
In September 2014, he united all the local tribes to create a common front against the rebels. The Bani Shaddad tribe is one example. Its own land that became, in 2015, a major frontline located in the northern desert of Marib city, a region called Raghwan. Its immense territory is difficult to defend and frontlines stretch all along the desert.
Fighters from the Bani Shaddad tribe in Raghwan, a desert village north of Marib
While resentment still exists between tribes in Marib, the city remains the only area of full cooperation between the national army and tribal forces.
In 2015, Arada re-established justice by recruiting new judges and closed weapons shops inside the city. Crimes then dropped by 70%. A brigade of female police officers was also created. He negotiated 20% of oil and gas revenues with the central government. Thanks to these revenues, he pursues a policy of developing infrastructure and public services, including a network of roads, schools, public lighting, and even a large football stadium.
Three women from the women’s police corps seen in Marib police headquarters. Dressed in a black niqab and a beret stamped with the national eagle, there are 300 of them in all
“We want the political model that we are creating here to spread everywhere in the country. Without freedom, the government cannot be stable. So we have to allow people to express their opinions,” Arada said.
The construction of a civilian airport is also under way. Civil servants are also paid every month, an extremely rare occurrence in Yemen since the start of the war.
The stunning old village of Haid al-Jazil built over a rock, in Wadi Doan, Hadramawt region. Yemen, 2022
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