AFP, Khokha :
Saudi-backed Yemeni fighters watch from a destroyed building the launch ceremony by Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) of multi-million dollar aid projects in the area of Yemen’s northern coastal town of Midi, located in conflict-ridden Hajjah governorate near the border with Saudi Arabia, on 22 April, 2019. Photo: AFPMohammad Abkar thought he would be home by the time Ramadan rolled around, but the Yemeni father of three will spend the Muslim holy month in a camp-displaced.
The fasting month begins on Monday amid a war that has triggered what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis pushing millions to the brink of famine. Abkar and his family were driven out of their village of Al-Munther in June last year when government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition launched a fierce campaign against Huthi rebels in the nearby Red Sea city of Hodeida.
Hundreds of families were forced to flee the port city and its surrounds.
“We have been here for about a year. A whole year, and we’re still displaced,” Abkar tearfully told AFP from a camp in government-controlled Khokha, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of Hodeida. “We will remain patient, and the rest is in God’s hands.”
The warring parties agreed to a truce deal on Hodeida in Sweden in December giving people a glimmer of hope, but one that is quickly fading as fighting continues.
Most families have been unable to return to their homes over fears they could be caught in the crossfire.
He left his home with nothing but the clothes on his back and the crutches he desperately needs to walk.
Abkar and his wife have three children-all of them are disabled. They are living through extremely difficult circumstances in a makeshift tent pitched on sand. Fasting from dawn until dusk during Ramadan will be no easy feat as summer temperatures soar.
