The chaos in Yemen, now the scene of some of the most chaotic fighting in the Middle East, has given rise to scenes at once familiar and terrifying. Civilians — noncombatants, both locals and foreigners — have been caught in the crossfire of what amounts to someone else’s war.
Those trying to escape the violence, either by leaving their homes or by leaving the country altogether, have been flung into a vortex of fear, fatigue, flight and death.
Explosions have shattered the windows of residents of Sanaa, the country’s capital. The fighting has killed hundreds of people in less than two weeks.
At least 74 children are known to have been killed and 44 children maimed since the fighting began on March 26, UNICEF said in a statement on Monday.
And that does not include casualties from a school in Ibb province, in southwestern Yemen. The Education Ministry in the province said three students were killed and others were injured in an airstrike at Al Bastain School in Maitam. The Saudi Defense Ministry has not yet commented on the claim.
16 million without electricity
Over the weekend, a Saudi-led coalition smashed parts of Yemen’s Defense Ministry Central Command in the capital, senior Yemeni officials said.
Despite the rain of bombs, the Houthis still control Sanaa. But the airstrikes have destroyed much of the city’s infrastructure.
The electricity has gone out on 16 million Yemenis living in Houthi-held areas, the Yemeni officials said. Many fear they will lose access to clean water as well.
Yemenis and foreigners are scrambling to leave. Passengers carrying duffel bags and plastic sacks stuffed with clothes were seen boarding an Air India flight as they hastened to leave the capital. Some of them sprinted to the plane.
This was a flight that no one wanted to miss.
Many were not newcomers to Yemen. Damodar Thakur, a professor at Sanaa University, had lived in the capital for 34 years.
“I never felt like a foreigner,” he said.
He was exhausted by the shelling.
“At night, my goodness!” he said. “Gunshots being fired every minute. Sometimes the sky full of sparkling lights. Some women crying, children terrified. Really bad.”
Over the last few days, India has evacuated 2,500 people from Yemen, said Vijay Kumar Singh, the Indian deputy foreign minister overseeing the evacuation. The flights are going to Djibouti, a small African nation about 430 kilometers (265 miles) away.
Some evacuees are fleeing on boats from port cities such as Aden.
“More cars in the streets in #Aden. Scared families rushing away in cars with smashed windows & suitcases & mattresses on the roof,” tweeted Robert Mardini, head of operations for the Middle East for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
One plane, one four-hour window
Houthi rebels control Sanaa, including the airport. But because of the airstrike campaign, the Saudis to some extent control air access, so getting people out requires coordination. The Saudi air force gave Air India a four-hour window to go to and from Sanaa and a specific travel route for a safe landing.
As the Air India plane approached the city, the crew could see the scars of the fighting. There were no cars on the roads. Dozens of buildings were destroyed.
At the airport, the landing strips and airport terminal were untouched by Saudi bombs, but buildings on the outskirts of the airport and planes along the airstrip had been blown to bits.
Loading of the passengers was swift. They approached the planes carrying boarding passes — a touch of normalcy in an otherwise abnormal event. They didn’t pay for the flight, but they had to purchase exit visas from the Houthis.
Children sat on their parents’ laps to maximize the number of people on the plane. Some passengers fell asleep as soon as they took their seats before takeoff. Everyone seemed to carry the weight of war, especially nurses who had tended the wounded.
From Djibouti, the evacuees will most likely disperse to their home nations.
“Now I can only pray for Yemen and those we left behind,” Thakur said.
Descent into chaos
Yemen has descended into chaos in the weeks since Houthi rebels, Shiites who complain of being marginalized in the majority Sunni country, forced President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi from power.
The Houthis put Hadi under house arrest when they overran Sanaa in January. But Hadi escaped in February, fled to Aden and declared himself still president.
Houthis and their allies, including those loyal to Hadi’s predecessor, then fought Hadi’s forces in the Aden area. Hadi fled Aden in late March, ultimately for Saudi Arabia, when the rebels and their military allies advanced on the city.
The conflict prompted Saudi Arabia, a predominantly Sunni nation and Yemen’s neighbor to the north, to intervene with force along with other Arab nations.
The Houthis are allied with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s bitter rival across the Persian Gulf, and the Saudis do not want an Iranian proxy in power on their border.