Witness Testimony: Saada, Yemen
Al-Wasat newspaper, issue 50, May 4, 2005, page four, (translated from Arabic)
1- Moh Ali Naji, mother
Today in Sa’adda, the streets, houses, schools and every thing is demolished with dead bodies every where in the streets. The army destroyed the farms, fruits, every thing. My aunt was killed inside the farm. We were unable to bury her until the smell of her
dead body was all over the place. Her body got bigger. It is the tenth day of the war, we do not have any food with us. We do not have any man to help us in the house. Two were killed in the war; two in the jail, my son is not allowed to enter Sa’ada. We can not get out of the house because the bombing is still continuing. The pilots do not make any difference between men and women.
2- Najwa Ibrahim April 9, 2005
My sister’s husband was injured when he was going to buy food for his family. He is now between life and death in critical condition. There was a child with him. He was injured too after they got out of the house. They don’t have any money to pay even for basic emergency help. Drug for him is not available. There is no place in the hospital because it is already crowded. There are too many injured people. My sister does not have any thing to eat. She can not get out of the house. I ask every one who can hear my desperate call to please help. This is a catastrophe we did not expect.
3- Mohammed Hussain, mother
To all human right organizations, to all those who care about us. I am one of the citizens of Sa’ada city. Sa’ada now is being subjected to ethnic cleansing with out any reason. We are starving and thirsty because we can not get out of our houses, every one who gets out of the house will be killed. Our neighbor’s house was demolished by a missile. Two families were in the house. All of them were killed.
4- Aisha Ahmed, 14 years, female, Saada
I am in the ninth grade . I was in school when they started shooting. I saw the girls of 7 to 15 years student were crying because they were frightened, scared. The teachers called the fathers to come and get their daughter from the school, but they could not because of fire shooting. Even the school was targeted by tanks. I call all child right organizations to please help stop the war because there are many children.
5- Naser Hamoud Naji, mother, Saada, Nishour Valley
I have eight sons and daughters and I am pregnant. The army killed my husband’s brother and injured my husband in his arm. The soldiers inspected our house and they were saying very bad words to us, they scared my children. We fled from our houses to Nishour Mountain to get shelter. The war planes bombed the area and destroyed our house and burned our farm. Every day I would get down to the valley to get some antiseptic or herbs to help heal my husband wounds, because I could not take him to the hospital and bombing is continuous. On the sixth day, the soldiers did not allow me to get down and threatened to kill me if I come again. I moved with my children with one of the sheikh as if I was his wife. I do not know what happened to my husband I left him and worms were in the wound in his arm
6- fatima saleh nishour 11 april
To every brave who could speak out and tell the truth, the war in Sa’ada is killing and destroying every thing, every day tens are killed. Their bodies are all over the place in the streets, in the valleys in addition to wounded people who bled to death in the streets or were taken to the hospitals where they cant find a place for them because of the crowds. Please stop the war.
