MARIB (YEMEN): Markets in Yemen’s embattled Marib city are bustling with people gearing up for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, despite fighting that has raged nearby between government forces and Huthi rebels.
While shoppers this week crowded the streets of the city to buy clothes, sweets and nuts for the feast marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, pro-government forces stood guard with rifles in hand. Since February, loyalists have faced a fierce Huthi campaign to take over the city and its surrounding oil fields, which make up the government’s last significant foothold in the north of the war-torn country. But residents are eager to celebrate the holiday, even in the shadow of the long conflict that has devastated the country and plunged it into what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“The turnout this Eid is just like every other year,” Mohammed Ibrahim, a shop owner, told the Media. “Despite what’s happening around Marib, thank God, everything is good.” Marib, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of the rebel-held capital Sanaa, had witnessed relative stability since the war erupted in 2014 — becoming a safe haven for hundreds of thousands who fled frontline fighting. Its loss to the Iran-backed Huthis would be a major blow for Yemen’s government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and could unleash a humanitarian disaster for the region’s civilians.
Both sides sustained heavy casualties at the peak of the fighting, which went into a lull earlier this month during talks in Oman aimed at securing a ceasefire, only to flare up again in recent days. It is pertinent to mention here that the Govt. in Yemen (that is globally recognized) is backed by Saudi Arabia-led military coalition. Houthi rebels, backed by Iran are fighting with the Yemen Govt in order to take control. As a result of the Iran-Saudia war the citoyens have been plunged into crisis that is reckoned as the worst in the world. Humanity there is suffering from hunger, disease and attacks on civilians.
Newspakistan.tv | YouTube Channel
