Residents are looking for drinking water in Alojainat neighborhood, west of Taiz, on Saturday, October 10,2015. By Abulnaser Alsadeek
Mwatana Organization for Human Rights has said forces of both Houthi armed group and the ex-president Ali Saleh have to speed up lifting their siege on Taiz city, southern Yemen, and allow access to basic needs of life-saving medicines and adequate food supplies. The organization stated that the suffocating blockade that started three weeks ago on the populous city is pushing residents to brink of decimation. Mwatana holds forces of both Houthi armed group "Ansar Allah" and ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh accountable for the destructive humane repercussions of the collective punishment policy against civilians in a flagrant violation of human conventions and International humanitarian law.
Local eyewitnesses told Mwatana that forces of Houthi –Saleh alliance have been obstructing and denying access of civilians to the staple foodstuffs and relief aids including water, food, and medicine by preventing such necessities from passing through checkpoints they are controlling at the main borders of the city, populated by around 700,000 residents. Mwatan's researchers tasked with fact finding in the city have noticed that the situation is getting worse more each day as a result of the siege and its destructive impact on civilians especially the most vulnerable ones such as women, children and in-patients staying in the few hospitals that work temporarily and partially.
Based on tens of testimonies Mwatana collected, forces of Houthi –Saleh alliance have been banning access of water, food, medicine and oil subsidies to the city, which has been, for seven months, witnessing fierce clashes between forces of Houthi –Saleh alliance and the popular resistance fighters loyal to president Hadi. According to Mwatana, this bloody conflict has resulted in killing and injuring hundreds of civilians caught between crossfire. Most of the victims are women and children. Furthermore, this conflict has taken a toll on private properties and the city's infrastructure.
Abdullah Mohammed Hassan,34, a relative of Abdulaziz Nasr,22, a retailer of cooking gas cylinders, has told Mwatana that Houthi fighters opened fire at him as he was trying to get in cooking gas cylinders to the city on October 10,2015.
Abdullah said, " Abdulaziz was held captive a couple of days ago by Houthis in Berara area, west of the city, because he was trying to get in his car that was loaded with 150 butane gas cylinders to the city. Houthis demanded that he pay 300,000 Yemeni Rials in taxes in order for him to be able to get his car to the city. Abdulaziz had no choice but to pay them the money. After he paid them in cash, they let him pass through one route . Five minutes after he was given the green light to move, they started shooting at him and the car driver. As a result, Abdulaziz was shot in his legs and hand and the carload was prevented from getting into the city."
Talal Almaqrami,30, a green produce vendor, was shot in the residential neighborhood of Masbah, downtown the city. He said to Mwatana: "for a month now we are being obstructed and denied access to get in green produce and vegetables to the city. Houthi forces positioning on Thaabat zone have been intercepting vans. "
Haron Murshid,20, a shopkeeper foodstuffs and consumable goods, told Mwatana, " on Oct. 7, 2015, a water truck was intercepted in a checkpoint manned by Houthis and the ex-president Saleh's forces in Berbasha (a crossway in southwest of the city). The truck was hosed to the ground after one of Houthi fighters mounted the truck and took a piss in the water tank."
In addition to the foodstuff blockade, few crowded hospitals face a sharp shortage of medical supplies and operating elements such as water and oil subsidies. This shortage brought about total stoppage of some units. Some other units such as Renal Dialysis Unit and Emergency Ward have been working under increasing pressure with expenses partially shouldered by patients.
Dr. Esam Mahyoub Dahan, Head of Transplanted Kidney Department at the Republican State Hospital, said that the department was shut down on Wednesday 7,2015, because it ran out of solutions necessary for renal dialysis and that Houthi and Saleh's forces hinder the entry of a shipment of blood solutions donated by a charitable person and the Red Qatari Crescent.
Dr. Dahan adds, " We suffer in the hospital from a shortage of water which is essential for the department to work and Diesel is out of reach. These shortages caused the generators to stop functioning and ,therefore, the department stopped working. There is an amount of diesel reserved for the hospital by the Oil Corporation, but it is being intercepted and stashed away in the Oil Corporation facilities.
Targeting civilians and depriving them of the staple necessities such as water, food and medicine amounts to a war crime and is considered as a brazen violation of the humanitarian laws and human rights alike. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998 describes that the severe suffering and doing harm to the body or to civilians hygiene as a gave violation. Item 25 of Article 8/B states that the deliberate starvation of civilians as a war strategy by depriving them of the indispensable stuffs by intercepting relief supplies is considered as a war crime.
Radhyia Almutawakel, Head of Mwatana Organization for Human Rights, said that the tightened blockade imposed on Taiz by forces of both Houthi armed group and the ex-president Ali Saleh , mainly targets the civilians but not the resistance armed groups in the city."
Almutawakel added, " While Taiz city is going through a hard humanitarian situation that is deteriorating by the day due to the seven-month-old ongoing fighting and hundreds of civilians fell victims, the siege has been intensifying of late and pushing the city to the brink of decimation."
Mwatana Organization for Human Rights demands forces of both Houthi armed group and the ex-president Ali Saleh to quickly lift their siege on the residents of Taiz city and stop preventing staple necessities from reaching out to the needy residents.
