Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis trapped as fighting escalates in strategic port city

SANAA, Yemen —Despite U.S. calls for a cease-fire, fighting is escalating in a strategic Yemeni port city, threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians and deepening a humanitarian crisis where millions are already grappling with a possible famine.

The clashes in Hodeida, pitting a U.S.-backed regional coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against northern Houthi rebels, has led to numerous civilian casualties over the past week, said residents, health workers and aid agencies. The violence is also nearing medical facilities, threatening the safety of patients and essential medical workers.

The fighting has particularly intensified near Hodeida’s port, through which passes more than 70 percent of all food, fuel, medicine and other essential supplies destined for the northern part of the country where the large majority of Yemenis live. If the port is damaged, it could be catastrophic for millions of Yemenis, aid workers said.

“Hodeida is once again trapped in violence with hundreds of thousands of Yemenis caught in the middle,” said Fabrizio Carboni, a senior official for the International Committee of the Red Cross, in a statement Thursday.

Residents said they remain confined inside their houses as battles, with mortars and snipers, rage outside in parts of the city. Houthi rebels have dug in, patrolling the streets in machine-gun mounted pickup trucks and deploying their fighters into buildings, houses, even hospitals, triggering fears they are using civilians as human shields.

[U.S. says the time to end the Saudi-backed war in Yemen is now]

The coalition meanwhile has conducted scores of airstrikes and deployed U.S.-made helicopters to target areas in and around Hodeida, including residential neighborhoods.

“We have been receiving a lot of civilian casualties,” said Mareb Almahweeti, a surgeon at a military hospital in the city, adding that many of the injured were struck in the neck and chest by shrapnel from airstrikes.

“The Apache helicopters are bombing many areas around the city most of the day,” he added. “We also hear airstrikes most of the day. The bombing is closer than before.”

After besieging Hodeida over the summer, the coalition launched a new offensive a week ago, two days after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a cease-fire and peace talks in 30 days, roughly at the end of November. An array of militias, aligned with the UAE and the Yemeni government, pushed forward into the city, backed by airstrikes and heavy artillery.

The coalition of Sunni Muslim countries is seeking to oust the rebels and restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government, not the least because the Shiite Houthis are widely said to be backed by Iran. The United States is aiding the coalition by refueling its warplanes and through intelligence and billions of dollars in arms sales.

A senior Yemeni government official said the goal of the offensive is to militarily weaken the Houthis and push them into negotiations. Hodeida’s port is a vital source of funds and supplies for the rebels, and losing control over the city could deliver a hard blow to the Houthis’ military operations.

“The goal is to take over Hodeida before the 30 days,” said Moammar al Eryani, Yemen’s minister of information. “If Hodeida is freed, the Houthis will be forced to come and sit with us at the table.”

On Wednesday, the rebels’ top leader, Abdulmalik al Houthi, in a televised address vowed to fight back against the offensive at whatever cost and urged his supporters to “move seriously to counter the aggression on all fronts.”

The rhetoric, coupled with the escalating bloodshed, is alarming the United Nations and Western aid agencies who are in most parts of Yemen the sole institutions assisting the 14 million people — nearly half the population — who are on the brink of famine. More than 3 million Yemenis have fled their homes; hundreds of thousands more could soon follow if the war for Hodeida continues, said aid workers.

“The upcoming talks cannot be an excuse to disregard the laws of war that protect the lives of the Yemeni people,” said Carboni. “Wars have rules and parties to the conflict must respect them, even in the fiercest battles.”

“This new attack on Hodeida is brushing away the hope sparked by the recent announcement of the peace talks,” he added.

Inside Hodeida, anxiety is growing. The clashes have largely unfolded in the southern and eastern parts of the densely populated city, said residents. In the targeted areas, shops are either closed early or shuttered altogether. Movement is limited.

“There is a sense of fear among people from being hit by mortars or airstrikes,” said Mazen Mujammal, a 21-year-old resident.

In the first six days of the new offensive, Doctors Without Borders alone treated 24 civilians for war injuries in Hodeida and another 50 more civilians in the town of Mokha, the medical charity said in a statement. The aid agency Save the Children said that more than 150 people have been killed in recent days.

Soon, aid workers worry, there could be fewer places to assist the population. The fighting is increasingly edging toward hospitals and health centers. On Wednesday, Save the Children reported that clashes damaged a pharmacy at one of its health facilities, adding that shelling also hit residential areas.

“The lives of hundreds of thousands of people, roughly half of them children, are in danger,” Save the Children said in a statement. Artillery shelling is being used heavily by all sides.”

Of particular concern is Al-Thawra hospital, the biggest medical facility in the city. It is now mere yards from a frontline where clashes are erupting daily, said aid workers. This week the United Nations Children’s Fund said the fighting is putting the lives of 59 children at the hospital, including 25 in the intensive care unit, “at imminent risk of death.”

“Medical staff and patients in the hospital have confirmed hearing heavy bombing and gunfire,” UNICEF said in a statement. “Access to and from the hospital, the only functioning one in the area, is now imperiled.”

More children could be endangered. Hodeida and neighboring provinces are at the epicenter of the hunger crisis, accounting for 40 percent of the 400,000 children who suffer from severe malnutrition, said UNICEF. The sickest are often taken to Al-Thawra.

At Hodeida’s 22nd May Hospital, there have already been interruptions in medical services due to fierce fighting in the area, said the ICRC.

Now, there’s a fresh concern.

Last week, Houthi rebels arrived at the hospital and took up positions on its roof, making it a potential target of the Saudi-led coalition, said Amnesty International, the watchdog group. Scores of hospitals and health clinics have been destroyed or damaged by airstrikes or shelling since the war began more than three years ago. Since their arrival, rebel fighters have been coming and going ever since, the group said.

“The hospital is full of injured civilians who have nowhere else to go for lifesaving medical care,” said Samah Hadid, Amnesty International’s Middle East director of campaigns. “Anyone attacking a hospital under these conditions risks responsibility for war crimes.”

“The laws of war demand that hospitals are not used for military purposes,” she added.

More than half of Hodeida’s 600,000 population have fled the city, mostly in the summer before the initial offensive. But many of those who remained are now finding it difficult to leave.

According to Save the Children, temporary roadblocks erected by the warring parties were “preventing people from leaving or entering the city overnight, in effect trapping them in an active conflict zone.” Clashes on shifting frontlines, too, have blocked escape routes to the south of the city, while the rebels have planted mines on other routes out of the city, said Amnesty International.

There’s now only one northern road out. But with fuel prices rising and the collapse of the Yemeni currency, both because of the war, many residents don’t have the means to escape. They include many residents who returned last month during a lull in the fighting, said residents.

“Those who have come back cannot afford to leave again because they have exhausted their financial reserves,” said Nabil Almahdi, 44, a resident.

The civilians in Hodeida are “completely powerless and can only stay put to await their fate,” said Hadid. “Their lives are in the hands of warring parties who have shown little or no regard for their duty to protect civilians.”

Raghavan reported from Cairo.

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