By: Afrah Burji
Suleiman Abdo, 49, was safe in his home, dear in his area, and when the war began in 2015, he became displaced, hungry, and miserable.
Abdo belongs to the Haradh district of Hajjah, northwestern Yemen, but he has been displaced for eight years in the Al-Salif district of Hodeidah governorate.
Speaking to Al-Mushahid, he said, “We left everything behind, our homes were destroyed, we lost our source of livelihood, and we no longer have anything. At present, we wish most of the days to stay safe from hunger.”
Although the Haradh region has a strategic location of importance to millions of Yemenis and harbors of Altwal land crossing, the war did not allow the stability of this region during the past eight years. The closure of the Altwal crossing for a long time has caused severe suffering to many farmers, fishermen, and expatriates.
Today, the displaced people from Haradh dream of the return of calm to their area so that they can live in their homes again. Millions of Yemenis also dream of the return of life to Altwal crossing, which constitutes an essential commercial line between Yemen and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
According to the 2022 World Food Program report, the war has displaced more than 4.2 million people from several Yemeni governorates since its outbreak. In 2019 alone, nearly 350,000 people were displaced to other regions because of the rising hostilities in their areas.
Hard life
When Abdo was displaced from his area, Haradh, with his family, to the Al-Salif district in Al-Hodeidah, they began to lead a hard life, and they did not even find suitable housing. They stayed under an old tent for a few months. The sun burned them during the daytime, and the cold hurt them at night, especially in winter.
Abdo told Al-Mushahid, “We lived in that tent for over three months. Then some philanthropists gave us one of the empty houses belonging to the salt company in Saleef so we could live in it.”
There is a big difference between Abdo’s past and present. He was content with his life in Haradh before the war, but now he can’t deny the misery. He said, “I was an employee at the Customs Authority in Haradh, and today I try to collect money by selling “veg mixtures and chips” in the market during the daytime. At night I help some truck drivers to complete some procedures in the Salif port for a small amount of money.”
According to Abdo, all the money he earns is not enough to meet the needs of his 10-member family, which consists of four children, three girls, his wife, and two sisters. He also can no longer work long hours because he has diabetes.
Huge economic losses
The city of Haradh has turned into a ghost town because of the war. Prior to the conflict, it was a hub of economic activity in Yemen and was known as the “city that never sleeps” for many decades. It was full with travelers coming and going to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Since it became a war zone, Yemen’s economic losses have skyrocketed.
Issa Al-Rajhi, a Yemeni journalist from Hajja, said, “The closure of Altwal crossing exacerbated the suffering of the people of Haradh, and disrupted the movement of travelers through this crossing. The state suffered heavy economic losses, and many citizens were exhausted. This crossing represented a window of life and a gateway of hope for the people of Tihama, from Haradh and Midi, northwest of Hajjah Province, to Hodeidah Province.”
According to Al-Rajhi, the Altwal crossing was a passage for agricultural and fish exports to Saudi Arabia, and its closure has paralyzed trade.
Al-Rajhi added, “Approximately 85% of Yemen’s agricultural exports and products passed through Altwal crossing, in addition to fisheries exports estimated at about 60 trucks per day of fish. Such a loss greatly affected the agricultural and fisheries sectors.”
Shawei Ahmed Adbaa, a farmer from Haradh, owns guava, banana, and mango farms in the Al-Ruba’ area, south of Haradh, and dreams of seeing Altwal crossing and the city of Haradh as they were before the war began.
Adbaa told Al-Mahshid, “Many farmers and I used to earn from exporting fruits to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that sufficed us throughout the year. But after the Altwal crossing was closed, we sold out fruits in the local market with very little profit, and most of the time, we suffered a loss due to the oversupply of mangoes, bananas, and guavas, and their stagnation in the market.”
The fishermen also did not survive the effects of the Altwal crossing shutdown and the destruction of the Haras area. Muhammad Salem Najri, one of the owners of fishing boats in the Al-Salif district in Al-Hodeidah, talked about the damage that befell the fishermen after the closure of Altwal crossing, saying: “The Saudi markets were the most important markets to which we exported the finest types of fish daily. After the closure of Altwal crossing, we started selling these fish in the local markets at a low price that does not cover the wages of workers and the price of diesel.”
According to a report by the Carnegie Middle East Center, published in September 2021, the closure of the Haradh border crossing with Saudi Arabia has halted economic activity for thousands of Yemeni families who have been forced to flee due to the ongoing conflict that began in 2014.
A far-fetched dream
After the Haradh region became a battleground and the Altwal crossing was closed, visiting relatives between Yemen and Saudi Arabia became out of reach for many Yemenis.
Muhammad Naji al-Hardi, 46, said that his uncle (his father’s brother and father-in-law) moved to Sabya, southern Saudi Arabia, since he was young, got married there, and became a Saudi citizen.
Al-Hardi added, “We used to visit my uncle, and he used to visit us continuously. After his daughter got married, our visits to him increased in Sabya. But after the war and the closure of Altwal crossing, we were displaced to the Abs area (south of Haradh), and we could no longer visit my uncle since the beginning of the war”.
For eight years, al-Hardi and his family stopped visiting his uncle in the Saudi city of Sabya because their living conditions did not allow them to do so.
For Yemeni expatriates in Saudi regions, traveling is no longer as easy as it used to be. The road from Altwal crossing would save them a lot of effort, time, and money when they wanted to return. Those advantages are unavailable at the al-Wadiah crossing, which is currently used as an alternative. This obliges many expatriates to forget the idea of returning home or compels them to travel only once every two or three years due to the travel length and the road’s hardship.
Mazen Abdullah is originally from the Bura district in Hodeidah, and an expatriate in Saudi Arabia narrated his misery. He told Al-Mushahid, “I used to visit my family and children once or twice a year, and after the closure of the Altwal crossing, I only visited them twice since the beginning of the war. The last visit was three years ago, particularly in the middle of 2019.”
Abdulla added, “I rarely visited my family because of my financial circumstances. I work on a farm in the Jizan region for two thousand Saudi riyals per month, and this amount is insufficient to provide for my family’s needs, in addition to the sums for renewing the visa and other requirements.”
“Because the Al-Wadiah crossing is the only port through which expatriates wishing to return to Yemen are allowed to pass, I faced great hardship, traveling for four days, crossing long desert areas, and arbitrary measures at most security points along the way. This matter made me patient with the suffering of being away from home, swallowing bitterness,” Abdulla said.
