Journalist Mohammed Al-Qadhi risked his physical and personal well-being to shed light on the terrible human toll that the war in Yemen continues to take to this day. “It’s getting worse,” he said.
Robert Frank
When did you start covering war in Yemen?
Mohammed Al-Qadhi
[In] Yemen, we have never stopped covering wars. There have been internal conflicts since they started between the government and the Houthis from 2004-2010, but the major conflict that we have been covering in Yemen [has endured] for years.
It was the conflict that erupted in 2015, when the Houthis, backed by Iran, took over the capital and overthrew the government. Since then, the war started. Also, the Saudi-led coalition started bombing the Houthis. I covered the war [from the time] it broke out until late 2019.
[By] then,I was completely exhausted, because I had covered the war for more than five yearscontinuously. I have been subjected to kidnapping. I have been injured, and I could have lost my eye. I [escaped] death several times, and I was also harassed and received death threats. Despite all this, I continued to report, because it was very important—particularly from Taiz city, which has been under siege by the Houthis [to this] day.
It was a humanitarian situation that was very tough and difficult for everyone. I had to stay there and report from the front lines. It was a very intense experience, [which] also brought a lot of damage to myself.
I am still haunted by the trauma of [the] nightmares of covering this war. My mother died in Sa’ana and [when] they buried her in our village, I couldn’t go and see her.
So, the trauma of this coverage, I think I will carry for a long time. It’s a very long experience, but it has a lot of consequences on personal level.
Robert Frank
Did it have consequences in terms of showing the world what was happening?
Mohammed Al-Qadhi
Definitely. I mean, I’m very happy about what I have done, particularly in Taiz, because it was under siege, and [when] I have reported, I received a lot of attention for my reports.
I would go to hospitals and report on the problems that they were facing: dialysis of patients, people suffering from kidney problems; people facing suffering from shortage of medicine. And they said the next day, “because of your report, we have been supported, and you saved the lives of so many patients.
So, I have tried my best to uncover the humanitarian crisis—the humanitarian disaster that was[occurring] there in the city, particularly during [the] siege.
Under siege, the situation in the city was very tough, very difficult. There were moments we couldn’t find ice, we couldn’t find food, we couldn’t find the yogurt. It was a very tough time for the city and for the people, and we needed to show the world what was happening there.
Robert Frank
What is the situation in Yemen today?
Mohammed Al-Qadhi
The situation is really very difficult right now.
We have two governments: Government by the Houthis, which is not recognized. In the north, they’re controlling—they have stiff security measures. An authoritarian regime there, a brutal regime.
At the same time, in the government[-controlled] areas, the situation is very loose. Security problems are there. [The] humanitarian situation is very bad. The economy is non-existent. It’s suffering a lot.
There have been a lot of economic issues, including the devaluation of the currency. It’s a very bad situation right now.
Of course, with what happened in the Red Sea, attacks by the Houthis, the Houthi involvement in the Gaza war, it has added more fuel to the fire and complicated the Yemeni conflict.
The Yemeni conflict is no longer a conflict between internal parties, but has a regional dimension and even an international dimension. And now, people have started to realize how important [it is] to look and to pay attention to the Yemeni conflict after the Houthis started to make attacks on ships in the Red Sea, and they continue to make such problems. So, everyone now has suffered.
The pain of Yemeni crisis has reached Europe, Canada and everywhere because of the Houthi strikes in the Red Sea against ships, and also the Houthi involvement in the war in Gaza.
So, it has become more and more complicated, and Yemen has become a chip in the international game: Iran supporting the Houthis, Americans bombing the Houthis, Israelis bombing the Houthis. So, it’s more complicated.
People were expecting maybe after eight years that the Saudis wanted to exit from the Yemeni conflict, and they proposed a road map, which nobody knew the contents and that was in 2022. People thought that it might move forward, and maybe, when it was given to the UN. [That] it might develop in one way or another that could lead Yemen to a peace process.
[For] myself, I thought that it would not work, because it was ambiguous. No one knew what washappening.
Despite that, the Houthis started to bomb ships in the Red Sea. They also started to attack Israel. Since then, nothing. It’s a stalemate situation. Nothing is moving. Noone knows where Yemen is heading. It’s a state of no war and no peace.
It is very tormenting for the people. People are suffering a lot. People are dying of hunger, and there is no light in that dark tunnel to show that Yemen could move [on]. Rather, the situation is getting more and more complicated because of this.
As I said, [with] the Houthi involvement in the war in Gaza, it has become a regional problem and an international issue. Now, Yemen is part of the global game between the United States, Iran and also [on] the international [level] as well as [with] other regional players.
Robert Frank
So, if you’re speaking to people in the West, is there any message that you have for them, or any suggestion that would help to improve the humanitarian situation?
Mohammed Al-Qadhi
I think the international community—there was a fault or a mistake that has been going on for decades, in terms of how the West has dealt with Yemen, particularly the United States.
They look at Yemen as a problem, or as a country that caused both some problems to Saudi Arabia, which is a major oil producer. They looked at Yemen from the lens of the Saudis’ interests.
They didn’t look at Yemen as a state on its own. As a as a country that is located in a very important strategic location, which is [the] Bab-el-Mandab [Strait], which is where 30% the [world’s] oil passes through to Europe and other countries.
They didn’t look at that at Yemen in such a way and they thought that Yemen was a Gulf business that they can handle as-is, until they started to feel the pain when the Houthis started bombing ships in the Red Sea, [inflicting] a lot of problems upon everyone.
Everyone is feeling the pain because insurance [premiums have] increased. Ships have to go through the Cape of Good Hope rather than passing through Bab-el-Mandab. This is increasing insurance [premiums]. People have started to pay more for commodities and for goods; for fuel. So, Yemen is no longer a local issue. Yemen is no longer a domestic conflict between the government and the Houthis, or a conflict with regional dimensions.
Yemen has to be at the heart of international attention, because of its location, because of theconsequences of this conflict. If gets worse, we could see a lot of problems, and we might see Bab-el-Mandab being blocked completely.
So, I think that the international community has to revisit its attitude toward Yemen, its view of the conflict, and to reread the situation in a very deep way and understand the real roots of the conflict, and try to help to address this conflict in a way that will create a sustainable peace, rather than putting out a fire which will erupt again.
