In the morning of November 29, 2017, tension soared up between the alliance of Ansar Allah and pro-Saleh forces. The three-year- alliance ended with clashes which erupted between two parties around Al-Saleh Mosque in Sana’a, as well as near houses belonging to Saleh’s relatives: (Baghdad st., Amman st., Al-Jazair st. and Sakhr st.) as well as Hadda Neighborhood: (The crossroad between Iran st. with Sifr st.). On Friday, December 1, 2017, there had been a daylong calmness in Sana’a, but the clashes renewed in the evening and intensified over the next two days. The clashes stopped when the Houthis announced the death of former president Saleh on noon of December 4, 2017.

During the two months of December 2017 and January 2018, Mwatana for Human Rights conducted no less than 40 interviews with the victims, victims’ family members, eyewitnesses, and medical staff to take their statements on human rights violations during the armed conflict that took place in the period between 29 November and 4 December 2017. Meanwhile, Mwatana documented the death of as many as 11 civilians, including three children, as well as the injury of 23 others, including nine children.

It also documented attacks on the Abdul Qader Al-Mutawakil Hospital, which was subjected to gunshots due to the clashes. The patients and their relative escorts, as well as the health workers, were all trapped inside the hospital almost for an entire day.

In a statement on December 4, 2017, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick called the parties to the conflict for humanitarian pause “to allow civilians to leave their homes and seek assistance and protection.” The statement continued: “The streets of Sana’a city have become battlegrounds and people are trapped in their homes, unable to move out in search of safety and medical care and to access basic supplies such as food, fuel and safe water. Ambulances and medical teams cannot reach the injured due to ongoing clashes”.[1]

One of the residents of Baghdad street, Sadam (a pseudonym) (29 years old), told Mwatana: “At 08:30 pm on Saturday, the clashes intensified with all kinds of weapons including shellings. A minute after I opened the door to my room on the third floor, I heard a very loud blast and I saw smoke billowing of our backyard.[2]

Saddam added: “I saw my brother, Bilal (a pseudonym) enter into the house shouting that his hand was injured. He was not aware of the shrapnel wounds in different parts of his body. I cannot describe the horror of the situation. We took him to the hospital along with my other brother who was sustained shrapnel wounds in his feet with to Al-Mutawakil Hospital. Gun fire was hailing at us from an eight-storey building housing Al-Mustqbal University in which pro-Tariq Saleh forces were stationed, but we were not injured.”[3]

The Pro-Tariq Saleh forces were stationed 200 meters away from Al-Mutawakil Hospital.

Accompanied by some of his brothers, Saeed Qaed (19 years old) was in the backyard of their house, guarding it against trespassers from both warring parties. In his statement on the events, Saeed told Mwatana: “On Saturday, December 2, 2017 at about 08:30 pm, as we went out to check the doors, one projectile fell in the backyard and exploded. I was sent flying in the air and fell back to the ground. I ran to the backdoor, but it was locked. I heard my family members calling to me and to my brother, Bilal. I went back to the main entrance of the house. I went in… I saw my brother, Bilal, in the middle of the room passed out and covered in blood from shrapnel wounds.”[4]

With regard to taking his brother, Bilal, to the hospital, Saeed continued: “Intermittent clashes were heard in nearby areas. I opened the door of the backyard, just opposite Al-Mutawakil Hospital. Gunfire was hailing at us from Al-Mustqbal University. My cousin was one of the rescuers; he, my brother and I ran under the bullets, despite my shrapnel wounds. As soon as we reached the hospital, I passed out and did not wake up until midnight. When I woke up, everyone was crying and I knew that my brother, Bilal, died of his wounds, just 15 minutes after arriving at the hospital.[5]

In the same neighborhood, Um Khuldoon (a pseudonym)- (46 years), said: “On Saturday afternoon, December 2, 2017, I was standing at the door of the house with my three children. I heard a big explosion. I closed my door and I heard my neighbor screaming: Minutes later, I saw her take her daughter, Eman (4 years) in front of my house. I could not look at my neighbor as she was taking out her two-year-old son, Khaled. One of her children’s guts were out, but I could not tell whose guts they were, Eman’s or Khaled’s. After some time, she went and brought a leg which apparently belonged to her daughter and placed it on her body. She was crying and saying: Oh God! Oh God! You have taken my kids, don’t take my husband too!”[6]

The woman, who lost her daughter, son and her husband, Rasha Ahmed Ali Al-Shuabi (25 years), told Mwatana: “I was preparing lunch. My husband Mohiuddin Numan Radman (27 years ) was standing at the door talking to me, and next to him were Eman and Khaled. I did not know anything All I heard was a buzzing sound and then I saw them that they were torn to pieces. I was shouting, help my husband! But the street was blocked and nobody heard me.”[7]

This was not the only instance in which civilians could not access medical facilities to receive medical assistance because of armed clashes. In her statement to Mwatana, Bushra Abdullah Ali (29 years) said that her niece, Manal (11 years) died as a result of her inability to receive medical care at the time of the clashes. Doctors think that her death might have been caused by appendicitis.

Bushra added: “There were no clashes in their neighborhood but fear prevailed over many neighborhoods in Amant Al-Asimah (Capital Secretariat) and turned it into ghost town. We could not venture out of the house without knowing what was going on in the streets. Fear prevented Manal’s parents from taking her to the hospital. They waited until the clashes calmed down but Manal’s health condition already deteriorated. Manal was rushed to Al-Thawrah Hospital on Tuesday December 5, 2017, but she died Wednesday December 6, 2017 in the morning.” [8]

On Sunday December 3, 2017, at 09:00 am, Sultan Abdullah Hizam Al-Jawfi (37 years) was driving his car at the Crossroads of Iran street with Sifr street. He was on his way to buy bread for his family when he fell dead.

In an interview with Mwatana, Al-Jawfi’s wife, Sana Yehya Muhsin Al-Nushairy (27 years), said: “I was asleep when my husband went out to receive a money transfer and buy bread for breakfast. Our neighbors came to tell me that my husband was injured. I went out to the Crossroads to find his car smashed from an accident; he was injured and bleeding from the chest.”[9]

In his statement on the incident, Hilal Mohammed said: “I was in my shop when a civilian car passed by at the end of Sifr street. Armed gunmen asked the driver of the car to stop but he did not; I don’t know why he did not stop. They opened their gunfire on him and did not allow anyone to come near him to take him to the hospital until his wife came to the scene.”[10]

Sana Al-Nushairy added: “The gunmen put my husband in a military car with two armed men, one wearing civilian clothes, and the other was wearing special security forces Uniform (former the Central Security). I asked them to take him to the hospital but they were looking at me silently. I had an altercation with them and held the shirt of one of them. They took him to Al-Mushiki Hospital and I followed them in a Taxi. When we got to there, the hospital personnel told us that he was already dead.”[11]

In an interview with Mwatana about another incident, Ahmed Ali (20 years) narrated the last moments in the life of one of his colleagues in a grocery shop, near the crossroads between Baghdad street and Siteen street. Ahmed said: On Saturday December 2, 2017, workers in the grocery shop went to their lodging through the backdoor. Ala’a Mugali (16 years) and I stayed behind to close the doors. After the fighting calmed down, we took the backdoor to follow our colleagues to the lodging.”[12]

Ali Ahmed Al-Sabahi (28 years), the one who opened the lodging door for them, added: “As soon as I opened the door, Ala’a fell in front of me covered in blood.” [13]

Ala’a’s elder brother, Ebrahim (38 years), who took to the hospital on a motorbike, as the clashes continued, told Mwatana: “As soon as we got out of the house, I had a feeling that Alaa was dead. He was hit with two fatal bullets: A bullet to the neck under the left ear, the other under the shoulder to the heart. Someone must have shot him with such precision but I cannot tell from where.”[14]

On Saturday December 2, 2017, Abdul Qader Al-Mutawakil Hospital sent a Distress Message on social media website, Facebook. The Hospital called upon the parties to the conflict to spare the hospital from the ravages of the conflict and to allow the entry of Oxygen cylinders, medicine, water and food for the patients and the hospital personnel.”[15]

In an interview with Mwatana, one eyewitness who was present in Al-Mutawakil Hospital, said: Since the first day of the clashes, the Houthis asked the hospital authorities to allow them to send a sniper on the roof but they refused. That night, no one could leave the hospital because of the situation outside. The clashed intensified in the next days, and heavy weapons and projectiles were used. We had to move all the patients to the basement of the hospital until Sunday afternoon. Everyone was under siege with no food and we had to eat the child nutrition kits.”[16]

Another eye witness who happened to be in the hospital at the time: “We had no food. We had to eat child nutrition kits until some of us could go out to bring bread from outside. We had water until some gunshots hit the water tanks on Saturday. The next day, water pipes were hit by gunshot. We could not get water.”[17]

According to the information gathered by Mwatana, 48 patients almost half of whom were received as a result of the clashes, and their relative escorts, as well as health workers, were all trapped inside the hospital almost for an entire day. The patients were taken down to the basement of the hospital, Saturday noon at 12:00 pm and were then evacuated on Sunday at about 11:30 am.

A third eye witness on the same incident said: On Sunday December 3, 2017, Houthis wanted to enter into the hospital by force and tried to break the door open but they could not. Later, they were allowed to enter into the hospital. When they were asked for the reason of their entry into the hospital, they replied: We are just following orders.”[18]

The eyewitness added, Ansar Allah (the Houthi) gunmen were using code language among themselves. After the Houthi gunmen entered into the hospital, a minimum of one tank was stationed near the hospital.[19]

[1]Relifweb,Statement by the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/statement-humanitarian-coordinator-yemen-jamie-mcgoldrick-requesting-humanitarian-pause.

[2]Mwatana interviewed the victims’ family members on December 9, 2017.

[3]ibid.

[4]Mwatana interviewed Saeed Qaed on December 9, 2017.

[5]ibid.

[6]Mwatana interviewed with eyewitnesses on December 13, 2017.

[7]Mwatana interviewed Rasha Ahmed Ali Al-Shuabi on December 13, 2017.

[8]Mwatana interviewed Bushra Abdullah Ali on December 20, 2017.

[9]Mwatana interviewed Sana Yehya Muhsin Al-Nushairy on December 5, 2017.

[10]Mwatana interviewed with eyewitnesses on December 5, 2017.

[11]Mwatana interviewed Sana Yehya Muhsin Al-Nushairy on December 5, 2017.

[12]Mwatana interviewed Ahmed Ali on January 13, 2018.

[13]Mwatana interviewed Ali Ahmed Al-Sabahi on January 13, 2018.

[14]Mwatana interviewed Ebrahim Mugali on January 13, 2018.

[15]A Distress Message sent by Abdul Qader Al-Mutawakil Hospital on its Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/almutawakelhospital/posts/1767778433232572

[16] Mwatana interviewed with eyewitnesses on December 12, 2017.

[17] ibid.

[18] ibid.

[19] ibid.