Defying Oblivion
It was risky to venture out of our shelter, so our coverage throughout the night was restricted to phone-interviews with Doha. In the early hours of the morning, we started to hear many tragic stories. One, in particular, grabbed our attention. Our crew rushed to the scene in Wadi Al- Qadi. The small house, like many others in the neighbourhood, had been levelled to the ground. The pungent smell of blood was still in the air. There were body parts and blood splattered all around. “Where should we start,” the cameraman asked. But I couldn’t answer. I pictured myself and my family there, in that destroyed house. The scene was so horrifying that I fainted. When I came round, I had bruises on my body, but the worst were those on my soul. The damage deep within me was indescribable. With difficulty, I managed to gather my strength and started to speak to eyewitnesses. “The whole area was shaking as if it were an earthquake. The shelling was heavy and intense. We heard our neighbours screaming for help, but no one could do anything under the heavy barrage,” said one of them.
Defying Oblivion Hadeel Al Yamani | Producer, Al Jazeera News Channel
Two months after our colleague Hamdi Al Bokari was kidnapped in Taiz in early 2016, I arrived in the city to continue our coverage of the war in Yemen. The incident I am about to describe was a turning point in my life which entirely changed my perspective towards Yemen and the daily massacres committed by the Houthi militias and forces loyal to the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Doha-based editorial department had requested a report on how the residents of the besieged city of Taiz were embracing the upcoming holy month of Ramadan despite the hardships of war.
I checked with my sources to find a story representative of the majority of people in the densely- packed province that had already been declared a ‘disaster area’ by the legitimate government. We came across a host of heart-breaking stories, but found ourselves hindered by logistical problems - from communications to transportation. Then, on the night before the first of Ramadan, Taiz was indiscriminately showered with mortar shells and Katyusha rockets from the Houthis and Saleh’s forces stationed to the east of the city. Nothing was spared; the whole city was shelled mercilessly.
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