Fear and uncertainty for civilians as Yemen’s capital comes under attack | Houthis

Sanaa, Yemen – At midnight on Tuesday, air strikes rattled the Yemeni capital Sanaa, a city that has been mostly spared bombing since a truce was announced between the internationally recognised government and the Houthis in 2023.

The head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashid al-Alimi, had recently announced a new military offensive was being launched, named Operation Dawn of Yemen, to take Sanaa from the Houthis, who have held the city since September 2014.

Government ground forces remain hundreds of miles away from the capital and embroiled in fighting with the Houthis on Yemen’s west coast and around Taiz.

This means attacks on Houthi positions in Sanaa must come from the air, but the air campaign has caused civilian casualties.

An air strike on Monday hit a location in the Sa’wan area of Sanaa governorate, killing a child and wounding seven other civilians.

The Yemeni government has pledged to continue its attacks until it achieves its objectives, notably the recapture of Sanaa. Regardless of the political opinions of Yemenis in the capital, most fear their city, far from the front lines, will become a war zone once again.

Decisive Storm

Strong memories remain of the Saudi-led coalition’s Operation Decisive Stormlaunched against the Houthis in March 2015, which saw hundreds of civilians in Sanaa killed in air strikes.

Since the start of the new Yemeni government offensive, dozens of strikes have hit the capital, including an attack on Sanaa’s international airport, which killed two workers. Both operations were aimed at Houthi sites.

Ghamadan Abood, a 30-year-old courier and Sanaa resident, said the new wave of attacks on the city has heightened fear among residents.

“When I learned about the new operation on Sunday, my feeling of security shrank,” he told Al Jazeera. “At any time and anywhere, air strikes may hit, and civilians could become the next casualties.”

On Monday, Abood was travelling on his bike when air strikes hit Sa’wan, just two kilometres from where he was. With Houthi military facilities believed to be positioned in the city, and the government sometimes hitting residential areas, the bombing highlights the vulnerability of civilians in Sanaa.

“The strikes could be aimed at missile launch pads, military equipment or facilities, but some of these facilities could be near neighbourhoods, farms or roads. So, innocent people could be killed, injured or left terrified,” Abood said.

Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, has also come under repeated missile attacks by the Houthis, including two strikes on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the latest on Saturday killing 12 people.

On Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition said Sanaa, Saada, and Amran were among the primary sources of Houthi missile threats. The coalition has noted that ongoing military operations are aimed at curbing the group’s ability to launch missiles on the kingdom.

Fear of displacement

More than 200,000 people have been displaced since fighting in Yemen escalated in recent weeks, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Most of those forced to leave their homes have come from Taiz governorate in southwestern Yemen, where the most intense ground fighting between government and Houthi forces has taken place.

Saleh Ayidh, a 50-year-old resident of Sanaa and father of five, fears the new air strikes will also force people from their homes in the north.

“Today, we see Sanaa as a safe place and distant from the front lines. For me, no place is safe in Yemen, particularly in the north, and war can spread anywhere,” he told Al Jazeera.

At the start of the Saudi-led coalition’s operation against the Houthis in March 2015, Ayidh’s family left the city for a home in the countryside. They lived there for six months, far from the assault on the Yemeni capital.

“Now we do not know what will happen to us. We will decide whether we need to leave the city if the air strikes keep intensifying,” Ayidh said. “Without safety, life is hard.”

Stocking up

The recent air strikes are widely viewed in Sanaa as a sign that war has returned to the capital, prompting residents to stock up on food and fuel.

When Operation Decisive Storm began in 2015, the cost of goods and fuel rose due to disruption to logistics and panic buying. The same trend is being seen again in Sanaa after the recent resumption of hostilities.

Grocery owner Nashwan, 24, has boosted his inventory of essentials such as rice, cheese, milk, biscuits, cooking oil and sugar, before they become too difficult to find.

He also stocked up on petrol, buying 100 litres to use for his minibus if a fuel crisis hits the capital.

“These commodities may become expensive in the coming days. If the war keeps escalating, buying them would cost me more,” Nashwan said. “I do not want to feel the impact of the war immediately.”

Any road closures or a decline in imports caused by the war and a Saudi naval siege on Houthi areas will present major challenges for civilians.

“Rising prices of food and fuel are a real worry for the entire population amid the war and will worsen the humanitarian situation in Yemen,” Wafiq Saleh, executive director of the Taiz Centre for Yemeni-Gulf Studies, told Al Jazeera.

Last week, the UN World Food Programme warned that three-quarters of families in parts of Yemen were going hungry.

There are fears an escalation of the fighting will lead to a more intense food crisis across Yemen, which the WFP has already described as “absolutely devastating”.

Yemen fighting

Despite the optimism of the internationally recognised government when announcing Operation Dawn of Yemen, few in Sanaa believe it has the ability to recapture the capital from the Houthis any time soon.

Raiman al-Hamdani, a London-based Yemen analyst, said government forces are big on paper, but remain scattered across multiple fronts, while soldiers are using outdated gear.

“They can hold their lines but can’t push the Houthis out of their mountain strongholds,” Raiman told Al Jazeera last week.

Fuad Ali, 40, a university graduate in Sanaa, said the Saudi-backed government has lost the public’s trust, particularly its claim that it could capture the capital after it suffered a series of embarrassing military defeats in recent weeks on the coast.

“The government has failed to seize the coastal Hodeidah province or Al-Jawf desert province. The fight there could be easier given the topography. How can it recapture the mountainous Sanaa?” Ali told Al Jazeera.

Operation Dawn of Yemen will bring more “destruction to the country’s facilities and increase civilian casualties”, he added.

Ali doubts the operation will return the government to Sanaa. But he also believes the government and Saudi-led coalition have learned their lessons from 2015, when huge civilian casualties from air raids drew international condemnation.

“I am still optimistic that Operation Dawn of Yemen will not damage Sanaa as Operation Decisive Storm did,” Ali said.