On July 21, 2015, the fighters of the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE targeted the house of Haj Ahmed Aida (77 years old), in the A Safra'a District – Sa'ada Governorate, with a bomb that destroyed the house and the farm, killing 13 sheep, and displacing five families, including his elderly son’s family, Abdullah (48 years old).
Abdullah works as a teacher, and is the father of ten sons and daughters, and the destroyed property was the source of the family’s livelihood, which began to sleep in the open, at the walls of a neighbor’s farm in the village of Al-Aqab, but out of fear, this neighbor expelled them from the place, so they left the house neighborhood to a Grand Vitara type car where they spent the night in it.
In the early morning, Abdullah went out to look for a breakfast, as he and his family could not have dinner last night, so he went to his neighbor’s house and asked him to bring them some food, but the latter cursed them and asked them to leave, threatening them to bring the villagers to expel them, so the family went to the nearby market, and there they had some food.
After that, Abdullah drove his car to search for a fuel station, but the car broke down on an asphalt road, and he did not find any station; Because the coalition at that time declared Sa'ada a military operations area, and that the stations are military targets, in addition to the fact that he does not have the cost of an oil jar, and thus, he ended up selling a gold ring of his wife to buy oil on the black market at 500 Saudi riyals for 20 liters.
Abdullah worked for a week cleaning the school and stayed there for a while, then sold what was left of the jewelry of his wife and the wife of his eldest son, and a month later he got a house under construction in the middle of a nearby village, without windows, doors, or toilets.
After he got the fuel, Abdullah was distracted where he would go. If he heads to the Hashwah district, 75 kilometers to the east, the car would not be able to take him there because the fuel would not suffice for all this distance, and he also had no drinking water, and the district was full of displaced people. They will constitute an additional burden for it and its families.
Here, Abdullah decided to call a colleague, whom he knew from school days, in the village of Khamer, Ammran governorate, and told him that the situation in Sa'ada was no longer bearable and that his house was bombed by planes, and asked him to host him as a displaced person. His colleague reluctantly showed his willingness to host them, so Abdullah and his family moved in, and reached Khamr before sunset, with his car breaking down several times.
In Ammran Governorate, Abdullah and his family slept at his colleague house for one night, and because the house was narrow, he decided to leave the next day to look for a house to rent, but he came back disappointed, as the houses are all overcrowded. As a result, he decided to take his family out to live in a girls’ school in the area, and there they slept for three nights However, there were not the slightest necessities of living in terms of toilets and so on.
Abdullah worked for a week cleaning the school and stayed there for a while, then sold what was left of his wife's jewelry and the wife of his eldest son gold, and after a month he got a house under construction in the middle of a nearby village; the house was without windows, doors, or toilets, but with the cooperation of the villagers he was able to settle there for a year, but his living condition remained difficult, so he decided to return back.
Abdullah returned to his destroyed house in the Mahdhah area, and decided not to leave no matter what happened, so he proceeded to clean and remove the rubble, and work on the farm. He says: "I would rather die than leave the village."
