My Only Fault was Living in This Neighborhood
November 21,2021
Your life may end brutally in a futile and unjust war, while you dream of living as an ordinary citizen who gets their day’s food to survive, to exercise your most basic rights, to return home safely, and to close your eyes at the end of the day in the hope of awakening to a better tomorrow. All this became a dream desired in a city that was once a symbol of life.
Saturday October 2nd, 2021 was a new turning point in the cycles of violence that erupted in the city of Aden. The scene of events this time was the streets of Al Taweelah neighbourhood, Crater District. Instead of water raining from the sky, it rained a torrent of bullets and shells in the midst of bloody clashes.
In an unexpected moment, one of your family members may be hit, your home destroyed, and your children live in terror and fear in the safest of their places, while you are helpless in the midst of a barrage of hell pouring down on you from where you have no clue.
All of this happened to us because the Southern Transitional Council (STC)’s forces decided to arrest an armed group’s leader called “Imam al-Nubi.”
“My husband, my 17-year-old daughter and I were in the house this morning when Imam al-Nubi’s group clashed with the TSC’s forces. Imam’s group was positioned in our neighborhood, ” gunfire could be heard between the houses. I didn’t see any of the gunmen, but we could hear them firing shots and making noises in the streets as they moved from one place to another.”
In the dawn of that day, at around 02:00 am, the neighborhood woke up to armed clashes, as a result of which many civilian casualties dropped down, killed or injured. Throughout the day, entire streets were closed off and the district was completely isolated. On the next day, some movement of people was allowed, as a barrage of scattered live bullets continued to fall over their heads, leading to the closure of all shops, groceries and restaurants, depriving people of their ability to carry out their daily activities to earn a living.
A resident of Taweelah told us about that killing spree, in which her house was caught in the middle: “My husband, my 17-year-old daughter and I were in the house this morning when Imam al-Nubi’s group clashed with the TSC’s forces. Imam’s group was positioned in our neighborhood, ” gunfire could be heard between the houses. I didn’t see any of the gunmen, but we could hear them firing shots and making noises in the streets as they moved from one place to another.”
Her tone of voice changed when she said: “When the clashes between the two sides intensified after 10:30 a.m., we hid in the inner room of the house as the sounds of shells passing over us and the never-ending gunshots were very frightening. We were reciting our Shahadas for fear that we might die at any moment.”
She went on to describe the scene: “Despite the dire situation, one of the neighbors, Waheeb, called and asked how are we. We told him that we are ok and that we are hiding and unable to move. He – in turn – informed us that the house next door had a burning car in front of its door and they were attempting to evacuate the residents. However, due to the clashes and the burning of the car at the time, Waheeb and some of the young neighbors were unable to reach to us.”
“Residents of the next-door house were rescued and evacuated through one of the windows, and my daughter, husband, and I were rescued by removing the iron bars from our house’s window. We were given a small ladder to assist us in getting down from the window to the ground. A bullet hit the water tank on the roof, causing water to pour into the house and onto the burning cars on the street.”
“After we left the house, we went and stayed at the neighbour’s house, terrified and distressed, not believing that we have survived and that we would be able to leave the house after what we have experienced.”
But not everyone in the neighborhood was lucky to be rescued or survived. Muhammad, a 14-year-old boy, was asked by his mother to go buy breakfast, but he did not return. The clashes intensified when Muhammad was in the middle of the street. He was scared. Fear and the instinct of survival led him to hide under a bus that was parking on the street, but it did nothing to help him, as his skinny body was riddled by six separate bullets in the stomach. Then the bus fell on his head after its tires were hit by bullets, so Muhammad continued to struggle with death there alone until he passed away, according to an eyewitness.
The victim’s uncle told us: “I learned from some people that they put Muhammad in the mosque. They were unable to take him to a hospital because the area was blockaded by the STC forces. I entered the Al-Huda Mosque around 08:00 a.m., and I saw Muhammad lying on the floor with his brother Alaa next to him along with some sons of Al-Taweelah neighbourhood who had found him. Muhammad was dead and his clothes were soaked in blood from his multiple wounds on his body. An innocent child who went out to fetch food to sustain his life and that of his family.”
Anhar Yusef Ibrahim (60 years old) was another victim, but not the last. she was shot in the right leg, causing it to be amputated and then clinically dead. After approaching the window to find out what was causing the loud noise on the street, the bullet penetrated the wall and landed in her knee joint, causing her to collapse to the ground.
The victim’s sister-in-law told us: “At one end of the street, there were some young men affiliated with Imam al-Nubi, and they were shooting towards the other end of the street, where STC forces were stationed. The shelling was deafening, with heavy weapons rather than ordinary bullets. We were sitting in the living room when my sister-in-law Anhar walked over to the room’s window. When my daughters and I saw her, we yelled for her to return, but it was only a matter of seconds before a bullet hit her after penetrating the side wall of the room, causing a hole in the wall, and then pierced her right knee, cracking it as she fell straight to the ground, bleeding.”
“We tried to reach to her, but our fear kept us from moving because gunfire was heavy and nonstop, so we stayed by the door of the room and watched her on the ground overcome with pain while we were unable to help her. Moments later, we quickly entered the room. My husband, my son and I dragged her from the spot of her injury to the center of the room. She was bleeding heavily, so we brought a piece of cloth and bandaged her wounds until the bleeding stopped. We were helping her and she was crying in pain and calling out: ‘help me! help me!.’”
“After that, Anhar’s right leg was amputated from the middle of the thigh, and she entered into coma, then her kidney and liver stopped functioning. She is currently connected to electrical devices that keep her clinically alive.”
Imam al-Nubi’s current whereabouts are unknown, and nothing is clear about the outcome of this battle other than the victims and the suffering of the people. The people are living in a state of constant anxiety and fear if another round of clashes might break out in their streets, that are still haunted by ghosts of the fighting, not to mention the material and moral losses they suffer after every clash in their neighborhoods, and no one seems to care.
Is it not time for Aden to enjoy peace and security? Do not its good and peaceful people deserve that?.
