The Damt – Sana’a Trip
“How The War Lengthened Our Journeys”
Mohsin Fadhle
July 4, 2021
With the sunrise of Saturday, the fifth of September 2020, I left our house located in the village of Haql Al-Fared, Damt District, Al-Dhalea Province, because I usually spend my two day weekend (Friday and Saturday) in the village with my family, while I spend the rest of the week in the city of Damt.
I left the house heading to the city. But during the past few days I had been preparing to travel to Sana’a, and the most significant thing I did was to have currency of the old print, as the new version is not circulated in the areas controlled by Ansar Allah armed group (Houthis), including Sana’a.
When I arrived at the outskirts of Damt, we were stopped at one of the check points. Our ID cards were checked and we were asked about our identity and what was the purpose of our entry to the city of Damt. The security situation was at its most critical state, due to the mass demonstrations on the previous night calling for the departure of the Houthis, and denouncing their decision to ban the circulation of new currency in the district.
As a result of this event, dozens of Houthi check points were set up at the entrances and centre of the city, imposing an emergency and strict security situation on the citizens entering the city, and prohibiting gatherings of more than three persons in the neighbourhoods, markets and streets of the city.
I managed to reach the Sana’a bus terminal, located on the main street of the city, and saw a state of turmoil among the traveling citizens. There are dozens sitting down by the sidewalks with their luggage in their hands and their pockets full of cash, yet they are unable to travel because the money they had was of the new denomination of the currency.
While the drivers in the terminal were refusing to accept fares in new currency from passengers, a state of confusion and discontent began to surface. At that time, a Houthi security squad arrived and dispersed the citizens who intended to travel to Sana’a and other provinces. Some citizens fled the scene before the arrival of the security patrol for fear of being arrested, and many passengers postponed their travel plans until they can manage to get some old currency.
In September 2016, the internationally recognized government of Yemen moved the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) from Sana’a to Aden. The Central Bank in Aden has continued to print new bills. Further complicating matters, in 2019, Ansar Allah decided to ban the use of new bills printed by the CBY in Aden, which resulted in increased fees for money transfers and the civilians’ suffering.
While I was lucky to have taken precautions in this aspect and was carrying an amount of old currency money, this helped me to leave the city of Damt without any problems.
I got in a brown Hilux, and we started our journey to Sana’a. The time was 08:30 a.m., and whenever we arrived at a checkpoint, the driver was asked where we were coming from? And the driver replied: from Damt.
Then the gunmen would order the driver to immediately pull over the car by the side of the road and began to search the car and check ID cards and the currency that passengers carried. Some of the gunmen at the checkpoints were asking the driver about the situation in Damt, and the driver answered that everything was fine and stable.
We passed dozens of checkpoints, affiliated to Ansar Allah (Houthis) armed group, spread along the highway leading to Sana’a, and we passed the provinces of Ibb and Dhamar. As for the districts, they were Al-Radhmah, Yarim, Ma’bar, Naqil Yasleh, Bilad Ar-Rus, Qaa Al-Qaydhi, and Hezyaz, all the way to Sana’a Amanat Al-Asimah (Capital City Municipality.)
I arrived in Sana’a at 2:00 p.m. and rented a taxi and go to the hotel where I would be staying for the duration of the law training course.
After the training course was over on Thursday, September 10, 2020, I was in a hurry to go back to the city of Damt. During my return journey there were inquiries from the check points about our destination and our ID cards, were checked before allowing us to continue our journey.
I left Sana’a at 5 p.m., and arrived at Damt at 10 p.m. on Thursday. The distance between Damt and Sana’a is 179 kilometres.
