Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses. Share the link of this article with your facebook friends

 

Millions of Yemenis Threatened by Famine, Spread of Diseases, and Daily Death and Destruction, Due to Continuous War

November 20, 2017 

Editor's Note:

The war in Yemen is fought internally by the forces of the elected President, Hadi, and the allied Houthi-Salih forces. The Hadi forces are supported by the Saudi-led Arab coalition forces, which are also supported by the United States. The Houthi-Salih forces are supported by Iran, which is also supported by Russia.

Thus the war in Yemen has its internal, regional, and global rivals, who are interested in keeping it going on for their own benefits (of course, no body cares about the dispensable, cannon-fodder Yemenis).

The larger context for understanding the Yemeni war (and other wars in Syria and Iraq) is that it contributes to the implementation of the Zionist-Israeli plan of destroying the Arab Middle Eastern states in preparation for the establishment of the greater Israeli empire, from the Nile of Egypt to the Euphrates of Iraq. 

For a background, read: 

Zionist Creative Destruction of the Middle East for the Benefit of the Apartheid Israeli Regime

 

A Yemeni refugee family, November 19, 2017	Three Yemen cities run out of clean water due to lack of fuel for pumps, November 18, 2017

 

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The following news stories are from the pro-Saudi website Al-Masdar ( http://www.almasdaronline.com/category/42  ):

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Houthi snipers shoot an officer, three soldiers, and a civilian eastern Taiz

ALMASDARONLINE, 2017-11-18T19:23:58

An officer and three soldiers from the government forces and a civilian have been killed by snipers from the Houthis group and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, east of Taiz city, southwestern Yemen.
 
A military source told Almasdaronline that a Houthi sniper stationed near the central security camp shot on Lieutenant Colonel Mahfouz Al-Riyashi in Al-Zahra district of Kalaba district killing him immediately.
 
He added that soldiers tried to pull the body of the officer Riyashi, but the Houthi snipers shot them killing the three, Mu'taz al-Sharabi, Mohammed Saeed al-Hammadi and Saddam Mohammed al-Hammadi.
 
On the one hand, a civilian named Yasser Muhammad Haidara was killed by another sniper in al Diba neighborhood, eastern the city.
 
In another context, the Saudi-led Arab coalition aircrafts launched two air raids on reinforcements for the Houthi militants, eastern Yakhla area, northern al Mocha district west of Taiz province, resulted in the killing of five Houthis and wounding seven others. According to field source.

Confrontations between government forces and Houthis-Saleh militias in Taiz

ALMASDARONLINE, 2017-11-18T19:21:14

Field sources told Almasderonline that the confrontations and artillery shelling between the government forces and the Houthis-Saleh militias renewed in al Hamli northern Moza'a, and eastern Yakhtel northern al Mocha of Taiz city. 
 
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led Arab Coalition aircrafts launched on Friday afternoon four air raids on the militia groups in al Hamli outskirts northern Moza'a, killing five and wounding seven others. 
 
In another context, four Houthis were killed and six others were wounded in an ambush in Najd al Marqab in al Shaqib area eastern Sabir al Mawadim, southern Taiz. 
 
Moreover, the Houthis militias in Khadeer district, eastern Taiz, bombed with artillery al Shaqib villages, eastern Sabir mountain, the government forces sites in Himyar Maqbanah and al Mafalees villages in Hayfan southern Taiz.

Weapons store explosion kills 16 people in al Jouf

ALMASDARONLINE, 2017-11-17T03:15:50

A local source told Almasderonline that sixteen people were killed on Wednesday including six family members when a weapons store, belonging to the local merchant Arif Qa'al, exploded because of the fire in Barat district northeastern al Jouf province, northern Yemen. 
 
The source added that Qa'al was killed and his five family members, in addition to 10 citizens who tried to extinguish the fire before the store exploded. 

Famine may be unfolding 'right now' in Yemen, warns UN relief wing

ALMASDARONLINEو, Nov. 17, 2017 –

The United Nations relief wing on Friday warned of famine-like conditions unfolding in Yemen, as a blockade on aid and other essential goods by a Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels there enters its 12th day.
 
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), sounded the alarm during the regular bi-weekly news briefing in Geneva.
 
“there may be as we speak right now, famine happening, and we hear children are dying. I mean, there's excess mortality as a cause and consequence
of undernourishment . ”
 
"Yemen imports up to 90 per cent of its daily needs, including fuel, which has now reached crisis levels.'' He added.
 
It is noteworthy that the Saudi-led Arab Coalition had announced on Nov. 6 the blockade of all ports with Yemen, as a pay back for the ballistic missile launched by the Houthis on the Saudi capital Riyadh, while a week later they reopened the ports under the government forces control.

Three Yemen cities run out of clean water due to lack of fuel for pumps: ICRC

ALMASDARONLINE,  2017-11-18T20:19:50

Three cities in Yemen have run out of clean water because a blockade by a Saudi-led coalition has cut imports of fuel needed for pumping and sanitation, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday.
 
As a result of the development in Taiz, Saada and Hodeidah close to one million people are now deprived of clean water and sanitation as Yemen emerges from the world’s worst cholera outbreak in modern times, the ICRC said.
 
Other cities, including the capital Sanaa, are expected to be in the same situation within two weeks, ICRC said in a statement.
 
“With imports of fuel and other essential goods at a standstill for the past ten days, three Yemeni cities had to stop providing clean water in recent days, putting close to one million people at risk of a renewed cholera outbreak and other water-borne diseases,” it said.
 
“The water and sewage systems in Hodeidah, Saada and Taiz stopped operating because of a lack of fuel,” the head of the ICRC in Yemen, Alexandre Faite, said in the statement.
 
The coalition closed all air, land and sea access to Yemen on Nov. 6 following the interception of a missile fired towards the Saudi capital, saying it had to stem the flow of arms from Iran to its Houthi opponents in the war in Yemen.
 
The United Nations has said the blockade could lead to “untold thousands” of deaths, and that its partial lifting by the Saudi-led coalition is not enough.
 
Iolanda Jacquemet, an ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva, said the shutdown of water services was a very bad sign for the fight against cholera, which had been on the wane for weeks in Yemen, although new cases are still running at about 2,600 per day.
 
“We’re very scared that cholera might come back,” she said, noting that the huge outbreak, which has sickened over 900,000 people, started in the capital Sanaa in April just 10 days after the sewage treatment plant had stopped working for lack of fuel.
 
“If these water treatment plants and sewage plants stop working, it can only bring cholera back and other water-borne diseases,” she said

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The following news stories are from the pro-Houthi website Yemen Extra (http://www.yemenextra.net/):

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8 Children, 3 Women Killed in Saudi Airstrikes on Jawf

Nov 19, 2017, YemenExra

Eight children and three women were killed on Sunday when the Saudi-led coalition fighter jets conducted a strike on their house in al-Maslub District of Jawf province, an official told YemenExtra. 

The strike led to the complete demolition of  the house in al-Hijah area in the district, killing eight children and three women.

The official condemned the persistence of the Saudi-led coalition in targeting populated areas as the international community remains silence.

12 Saudi airstrikes rock Yemen’s Hajjah Governorate

Nov 19, 2017, YemenExtra

The fighter jets of the Saudi-led coalition waged 12 airstrikes on Haradh and Medi districts of Hajja province overnight, an official told YemenExtra on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the artillery of the Yemeni joint army shelled gatherings of Saudi-paid militias in northern Medi desert, the official added.

Saudi Airstrikes Take the Life of a Yemeni Civilian, Injure Six Others in Sana’a

Nov 19, 2017, YemenExtra

 A citizen was killed and six others sustained injuries in Saudi American airstrikes on Sunday that targeted Hamadan District of Sana’a province six times, an official told YemenExtra. 

The strikes hit Bait Na’am region in the district, killing the citizen, wounding six others and heavily demolishing the houses of citizens.

The official condemned the continuation of the Saudi-led coalition in targeting residential areas and properties of citizens.

OCHA urges Saudi-led coalition to open all Yemen’s sea ports

Nov 19, 2017, YemenExtra

The military coalition led by Saudi Arabia should urgently open all Yemen’s sea ports amid the famine and the spread of diseases that have affected some seven million people in the war-ravaged country, a UN official has said.

Jamie McGoldrick of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tuesday in the Swiss city of Geneva that the ongoing Saudi-led blockade risked undoing the fight against cholera and hunger.

The UN official said seven million people were already in “famine-like conditions” in Yemen.

McGoldrick went on to say that the northern region of Yemen only had 20 days’ stock of diesel, which is crucial for pumping water and battling the cholera outbreak. Yemen, he said, had 10 days’ stock of gasoline, with no prospect of resupply soon.

The United Nations says there is “no indication” that the Saudi-led coalition is lifting the naval and aerial blockade.

McGoldrick said the UN was aware of an announcement that the coalition was allowing deliveries to two ports in southern Yemen, which are controlled by pro-Saudi authorities. He said access to such ports was “helpful” but the key need was access to the Red Sea ports of Salif and Hudaydah, which are closer to large population centers and are currently inaccessible to UN aid shipments.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the regime in Riyadh.

Recently, the United Nations added Riyadh and its allies to a blacklist for the “killing and maiming of children.”

Riyadh’s deadly campaign has seriously damaged Yemen’s infrastructure. Local Yemeni sources have put the death toll from Saudi airstrikes at over 14,000 people. Another 2,100 people have died of cholera since April as hospitals struggle to secure basic supplies across the country.

In late October, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that food was being used as a “weapon of war” in Yemen at a time when millions of people faced an impending famine in the impoverished Arab country.

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The following news stories are from the anti-Saudi website Al-Motamar (http://www.almotamarenglish.net/):

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Two UAE pilots killed in Jawf
Tuesday, 17-October-2017
The United Arab Emirates acknowledged on Tuesday that two of its pilots were killed when their military aggression plane crashed over Jawf province, a military official said

The official added that the aggressive crashed plane was an apache that was
Three citizens killed in Saudi air strikes hit Saada
Tuesday, 17-October-2017
Three citizens were killed and four others wounded in two Saudi air strikes hit Majza district of Saada province, an official said on Tuesday.

The strikes hit a citizen's car in al-Jamalah area in the district, the official added.

Artillery shells groups of mercenaries in Marib
Tuesday, 17-October-2017
Artillery of the army and popular shelled a gathering of Saudi-paid mercenaries in al-Moqadra area in Serwah district of Marib province, a military official said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, dozens of Saudi-paid mercenaries were killed and others injured in Wadi al-Theek in the district, the official added.

Army carries out military operations in Taiz
Monday, 16-October-2017
The army and popular forces carried out on Monday unique military operations in Taiz province.

A military official said that a number of Saudi-paid mercenaries were killed at the hands of the army and popular forces in al-Jazami Hill in al-Kadaha area in al-Ma'afer district.

Saudi aggression warplane kills civilian in Saada
Monday, 16-October-2017
A Saudi aggression fighter jet targeted a citizen's car driving in Fara area of Kutaf district in Saada province overnight, killing the driver and injuring his friend, a security official said on Monday.
Artillery hits Saudi-paid mercenaries' sites in Jawf
Monday, 16-October-2017
The army artillery and popular committees launched a fierce attack on Saudi-paid mercenaries' sites in Jawf province, a military official said on Monday.

The attack destroyed a military vehicle belonging to the mercenaries and killed all on board in Sabran area in khab and shaaf district.

Army breaks Saudi sneak attempt in Najran, kills many
Sunday, 15-October-2017
Scores of Saudi enemy soldiers were killed and injured on Sunday when the army and popular forces repelled a Saudi military attempt to sneak into Shurfah site in the border province of Najran, a military official said.

The operation was accomplished successfully against the Saudi
18 Saudi-paid mercenaries killed in Marib
Sunday, 15-October-2017
The army and popular committees have killed a total of 18 Saudi-paid mercenaries in sniper operations over the past hours in the central province of Marib, a military official said on Sunday.

Ten mercenaries were killed in Nehm district and eight others were killed in Serwah district, said the official.

Saudi aggression launch over 49 airstrikes on Yemen
Saturday, 14-October-2017
Saudi aggression warplanes have launched more than 49 airstrikes over the past hours on several residential areas across Yemen, a security official said on Sunday.
The airstrikes targeted the areas of Malahiz and Husama in Dhahir district, and areas Thuban, Masahif and Sdad in Bakim district of northern Saada province.

Army kills mercenaries in Nehm
Thursday, 12-October-2017
The army and popular forces carried out an operation attack on Saudi-paid mercenaries' sites in al-Hawal area in Nehm district.

A local official said that the operation attack resulted in killing and injuring mercenaries, adding they also incurred heavy losses at their ranks

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War in Yemen:

In a Devastated Country, One City Is Thriving  

The city of Marib in Yemen was long seen as an al-Qaida stronghold. But as the rest of the war-ravaged country descends ever deeper into chaos, it has become an unofficial capital with booming businesses and a popular university, a place poised between horror and hope.

DER SPIEGEL, By Christoph Reuter

This article originally appeared in German in issue 47/2017

November 18th, 2017

"Cholera? No, cholera isn't the worst problem here," says the hospital director. The fatal epidemic spreading across Yemen in the last eight months, which has infected around 800,000 people and claimed over 2,000 lives, "is only the third or fourth most common cause of death here in Marib," says Dr. Mohammed al-Qubati. "Most deaths are caused by landmines."

Marib's desert valley, located 172 kilometers (107 miles) east of the capital Sanaa, served for months as the frontline of some of the civil war's fiercest fighting. Starting in 2015, the attacking Houthi militants began laying tens of thousands of land mines on roads, in fields and in gardens. Today, the front line runs 35 to 100 kilometers outside the town. But the mines are still there, still killing soldiers and civilians alike. "We only have 120 beds," says the doctor. "They're always occupied. Go and see for yourself, second floor!"

"Welcome! Orthopedic Ward," read the colorful letters above the entrance leading into the amputees' corridor. Anyone here with a shattered leg, still held together with screws and splints, can consider themselves lucky. Others have lost one if not two legs. Many of them are soldiers, but the patients also include farmers and even an elderly woman. These patients were admitted in just the last few days and weeks, and the scabs on their wounds are often still fresh. Qubati explains that only a fraction of the people injured by land mines survive the journey to hospital, which can take hours.

Piles of plastic lower legs and feet, foam blocks and metal splints are stored in the prosthesis workshop on the floor below. It's the hospital director's pride and joy. In the room next door, 13-year-old Naif is being measured up. He was playing in the yard when a land mine exploded. He lost both his feet.

"We train specialists," says Qubati, "and these days we make everything ourselves." He's confident that here in Marib, prosthetics have a future.

The small hospital on the edge of the desert is a place of extremes, where the mood fluctuates between horror and hope. It reflects the general situation in this part of the country. The fact the hospital exists at all, that experienced doctors work here, that there is reliable electricity and that the incidence of cholera has remained low due to a reasonably functional clean water supply: All of that is thanks to the spectacular rise of Marib from bastion of terrorism to Yemen's most thriving city; from a backwater to a boomtown that draws companies, refugees, experts and banks from across the country. Marib is in business.

A Humanitarian Disaster Zone

For over two decades, the town, which initially had a population of 40,000, and the entire province of Marib were a notorious refuge for al-Qaida, dangerous territory for Yemenis, let alone for foreigners. It was ruled by tribes who would blow up pipelines and electricity lines to extort money, and known mainly as a place where the U.S. regularly carried out drone strikes on al-Qaida members, proven or suspected.

Then began the fall of Yemen, and with it, the rise of Marib. In 2011, hundreds of thousands of people took the streets of Yemen, as they did across the Arab world, calling for an end to dictatorship. Towards the end of the year, President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to step down after more than 30 years in power.

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He was succeeded by his vice president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, in a mainly symbolic election, given that he was the only candidate, but it was designed to ensure stability in the period of transition and to help reconcile two protesting factions. There had been regular outbreaks of fighting between the army and the Shia Houthi rebels in northern Yemen since 2004, while the secessionist movement in the south was pushing to reclaim the independence of the former socialist state of South Yemen, lost in the union with North Yemen in 1990.

Hadi sought to play off the Houthis from the north against the southern forces, but he hadn't reckoned with his predecessor. A master at switching alliances, Saleh was merely spinning his wheels until he could return to power. Despite having ordered bombings of Houthis for years, he now joined forces with them. Elite units of the army had also remained loyal to him. In summer 2014, when Hadi, under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), announced a massive cut to fuel subsidies, protests organized by the Houthis met with vociferous support.

In January 2015 the Houthis, in alliance with Saleh, took control of Sanaa. Hadi fled. In response, "Operation Decisive Storm" was launched by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on March 26, 2015, initially taking the form of air strikes on military bases as well as on hospitals, funeral processions and residential areas. Iran supplied the Houthis with rockets and mines.

Two and a half years later, the country is no closer to reaching a decision, or a resolution of the violence, instead having descended into the world's biggest humanitarian disaster zone. Now that Saudi Arabia is blocking food imports, a quarter of Yemen's population of 27 million is threatened with famine. The situation has worsened since many of the country's ports and airports were shut down on November 6.

Sanaa and Yemen's other main cities are either controlled by the increasingly paranoid Houthi forces and being bombed by Saudi Arabia, or they are located - like Taizz - directly on the frontline, or they were - like the port town of Mukalla - only recently liberated from al-Qaida. In Aden, meanwhile, Yemen's allies, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, having forced out the Houthi forces, are now at war with one another.

A Positive Domino Effect

That leaves Marib. Its famous temple ruins, with their square pillars, serve as a reminder that 3,000 years ago, it was the capital of the ancient Sabaean kingdom. Then, as now, it owed its status to its prime geographic location. Even in ancient times, water from the Marib Dam supplied the city and the land around it. Today, the dam's water levels remain high. The caravans along the incense route that helped Marib prosper are long gone but, not far from the city, the state oil company Safer produces 1,900 tons of natural gas, diesel and crude oil every day for the power plants that are the country's sole source of energy, with 20 percent of the revenues going to the provincial government.

After the end of fighting between the Houthis and Hadi supporters in late 2015, a sort of positive domino effect has set in here: Between 1.5 and 2 million refugees from all corners of the country have come to Marib, and the tide shows no sign of ebbing. Many of them are poor, but there are also entrepreneurs among them, as well as doctors like Qubati, lawyers, journalists and artists, all fleeing the arbitrary arrests carried out by Houthis in Sanaa, the fighting, al-Qaida and corruption, all of which is dragging the rest of the country deeper and deeper into disaster.

Moreover, wealthy people who left Marib decades ago are starting to return. This includes Mohammed Zubaiyen, the 26-year-old scion of the ZTCO group, a trade and construction holding company active across in the Middle East. He left the city when he was nine, went to school in Cambridge, and attended the American University in Dubai. "Why would I have stayed?" he asks. "What was Marib's reputation 20 years ago? There were only three roads and hostage-takers here."

Even two years ago, "we wouldn't have dreamed of investing here," he says. But with the sudden mass influx of refugees, real estate and property prices started shooting up. Hundreds of new businesses were founded, from a brickworks to a drinking water bottling plant, all of which needed workers. There are construction sites everywhere. In 2016 the Central Bank of Yemen, which had already moved from Sanaa to Aden, opened a branch in Marib, and four other banks have also opened in the city.

Mohammed's father and two uncles spent some time closely monitoring the situation in their erstwhile hometown. They had long been making their money as a subcontractor for the South Korean Hyundai Group, with major construction projects such as the nuclear power station in Abu Dhabi. Eventually the four Zubaiyens decided that Marib was a sound investment. They've now drawn up a plan for "Sheba City," an entirely new district spread across 6.5 square kilometers of land, encompassing 1,200 residential blocks, three malls, office buildings and industry. They have ruled out third-party investment and plan to rely entirely on equity capital of a quarter of a billion dollars, earmarked primarily for development.

"We will need thousands of construction workers," says Mohammed Zubaiyen, who moved from Dubai to Marib in August. He concedes that it's a daring plan, and he also admits that they are profiting from the war. "Even if towns are liberated from the Houthis or al-Qaida, most refugees won't return," he says. "Because what won't change is the corruption and the ineptitude of the local powers." Marib's government, by contrast, is seen as upstanding.

Incremental Change

One man can take the credit for the fact the city is benefiting from the surrounding chaos rather than drowning in it - a man whose thick-rimmed glasses and low-key bearing means he's often underestimated. Sultan al-Arada, 59, has been provincial governor since 2012. He is also one of the region's most important tribal leaders. His family has weathered the challenges of recent decades with its reputation intact. At his side are the Marib's powerful tribes, who do not want to bow to the Houthis or be bombed by the U.S. on the grounds they are al-Qaida sympathizers. The tribes have always been the backbone of power in Yemen's mountains and deserts. Their role is less conspicuous in times of peace but their support is indispensable to every government.

A longtime parliamentary representative, Arada is a cautious but strategic mover. He wasn't interested in a political career in Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime. The last two generations of his family have nurtured close ties to the Saudi royal family and he is loyal to President Hadi. But ultimately, he always does his own thing.

Such as this trip, for example. The world at large pays little attention to what happens in Yemen. Neither the Houthis, nor Saudi Arabia, nor the UAE are willing to allow journalists into the country. It was Sultan al-Arada, working together with the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, a small team of well-connected Yemenis, who made it possible for a dozen foreign journalists to enter the country on a reporting trip.

It is also thanks to Arada that Yemen's finest minds are coming to Marib. Two thirds of the professors at the university - where the number of students has swelled from 1,200 to 5,000 - come from outside. Where else are they going to go?

Half of the students are women. The city authorities have put a bus service at their disposal as a way of encouraging conservative families to allow their daughters to attend university. The lecture halls are over-crowded, and men and women are taught together in the new corrugated iron barracks on the campus. The majority of engineering students are men, while black-veiled women are the dominant presence in educational sciences. One 19-year-old is sitting next to her 38-year-old mother, who wants to finally become a teacher, a dream she has long held. "My husband is against it," she says. "We argue every night. But I try to make him happy so that he leaves us alone."

Women here don't venture out without their niqab, the full body covering that leaves only a slit for the eyes. But some small changes in society, that only become apparent in one-to-one conversations, say more about Arada's plans than the pronouncements made by his provincial government on Facebook.

Young radio journalist Raschid al-Mulaiki left Sanaa in March after more and more reporters were kidnapped by Houthis in civilian garb and disappeared into jails without trial. He's now the co-host of a new show on Radio Marib called "Baituna," which translates as "Our House." Covering family issues, it's inevitably controversial.

"We started out talking about harmless topics such as how Facebook is changing families, problems between fathers and sons," he says. "The governor supports us, but we have to move forward carefully. We're planning a show about a young woman who wants to study, but whose father is against it. We will invite guests and callers to give their opinion but we won't take a side. That would be too sensitive."

In Yemen, everything is a question of striking the right balance, says Sultan al-Arada at a meeting in the governor's headquarters. This is why it is so hard to negotiate an agreement with the Houthis. "Their takeover of power was not only a coup against Yemen's institutions, but also against its identity," he says. "The Houthis insist that only a descendant of Imam Hussein (a savior in Shia Islam) may rule the country. But that will never work."

The long struggle to banish al-Qaida from Marib attests to the difficulty of striking this balance in the vacuum of the non-existent state. For those who turned to the radical movement because they were angry and needed money, there are now other options. Such as Mohammed Zubaiyen's former neighbor. "When I was younger, he lived six houses away. We played together. He later become an al-Qaida commander, a technical virtuoso who could turn a car into a tank, extend the reach of a rocket and fit out vehicles for suicide bombers," he says. Now he's changed tacks and outfits jeeps with armor to sell to the government.

It's been harder to reach al-Qaida ideologues. According to Arada, many have been arrested and some have been killed. "What helped the most was that their own families rejected them," he says.

But rockets fired from U.S. drones continue to rain down from nowhere around Marib. On the second day of our stay here, four men were killed in a car north of the city. "The drone attacks also kill civilians," says Arada. "They force more people into the arms of al-Qaida than the movement's own propaganda. We wish the Americans would give us a chance to arrest people before they start attacking."

But Yemen's feuding factions have been using terror as an instrument for years. Arada's own brother Khalid is on the U.S. government's black list as an "al-Qaida financial backer and leader." He was added to it six years ago by the head of the secret service at the time, a nephew of former president Saleh. It was a lie aimed at undermining him, says the governor. These days, the Americans actually help bomb Saleh's troops but continue to kill people he added to the black list. It's a paradoxical situation. "I asked the U.S. ambassador in Riyadh to take my brother off the list," says Sultan al-Arada. "But he just told me to hire a lawyer."

A Battleground for Competing Interests

People in Marib are constantly complaining that foreign intervention is to blame, especially by the Iranians, but also the Americans, and the West in general. The Houthis on the other side of the front line take a similar view, only they blame Saudi Arabia. That Yemen's elites also helped destroy the country themselves, paving the way for foreign intervention, is willfully ignored.

The indifference of Yemenis of all political persuasions to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in their country can be observed in Marib every morning at 9 a.m. when the trucks arrive from Arhab to deliver fresh khat, which is a mild stimulant and only grows in the high altitudes within Houthi territory. The truck drivers take circuitous routes to cross the front lines between enemy territory, because the whole of the country chews khat. Yemen is falling to pieces, hunger and cholera are rife - but the collective afternoon high is still standard practice.

Khat is cultivated in areas where food crops used to be grown and it uses up water. A lack of water is one of the reasons for the cholera epidemic, but khat continues to be cultivated because it's more profitable than wheat. The people's purchasing power has fallen, but new wholesalers still buy tons of khat every day, including senior commanders both from Hadi's army and the Houthis. Without khat, there would be no attacks, as the amputees in Dr. Qubat's overcrowded hospital confirm.

For as long as the country's descent continues, Marib will flourish. A sudden peace could plunge the city back into provincialism. But that isn't likely. Saudi Arabia's official reason for waging war here is to put President Hadi back into power. But he is in Riyadh, under house arrest.

Yemen is the battleground for a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. No one is interested in salvaging the country. Every foreign intervention is designed to secure a piece of it.

And nobody speaks anymore of an imminent end to the fighting. Even the man sitting on the wooden bench outside the orthopedic ward of the hospital and muttering that the war is over admits it's only over for him. His right arm has been replaced by a prosthetic. So has his right leg. He's here waiting for them to be adjusted.

This article originally appeared in German in issue 47/2017 (November 18th, 2017) of DER SPIEGEL.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-city-of-marib-is-flourishing-while-yemen-falls-apart-a-1177800.html  

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