Ibb governorate is trying to distance itself from the armed conflicts that have raged for nearly six years in Yemen, which made it a destination for thousands of displaced people from various Yemeni governorates. Nevertheless, death found its way to civilians through the catastrophe of insecurity and the absence of the rule of law.
One of the ghosts of death that wanders quietly among the people of Ibb and disturbs their tranquility is the falling-bullets, which fall from the sky immediately after leaving the muzzle of the firearm to settle in a body of victim, causing them death or injury. These incidents are repeated in the absence of the role of Ansar Allah group (Houthis) in Ibb to stop this continuous bleeding, as they are the de facto authority and responsible for protecting civilians in the areas of their control. Victims and their families, also, have no legal recourse to find out the violators and hold them accountable.
In the past, the falling-bullets were connected to weddings, where people used to shoot fire into the sky celebrating wedding ceremonies, in addition to the limited use of gunfire in funerals of those killed for criminal cases. However, the number of victims of this kind of gunfire was not as big as it is today. As the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) and their supporters excessively use this custom during the funeral ceremonies for their dead who fell on the battlefronts.
Ibb governorate recorded, within a few weeks, more than eight cases of injury and killing with this uncontrolled weapon, most of which are children.
Every day, Muhammad Yahya Abdo Hasan Al-Shuaibi goes out in the morning to graze his herd of sheep in the valley below his village (Al-Masaliqah), and returns home at noon. Al-Masaliqah is one of the villages of Shaban sub-distrect of As Sayyani District, which is approximately 15 kilometers from the center of Ibb governorate. Like most of the villages of Ibb, this village is famous for agriculture, where there is a large valley, called Wadi Al-Masaliqah, in which various range of crops are cultivated, such as grains, vegetables, and Qat.
On Friday morning, July 10, 2020, which was a wonderful rural morning, Muhammad led his herd of sheep, like every day, to the valley. But, at one o’clock in the afternoon, while he was swaying between his desire to return home and waiting for some of his sheep that had not yet satiated, a falling-bullet hit his left knee, lodging between the kneecap and thighbone and torn two of his arteries.
“Mwatana” telephoned Dhiya’a Yahya Abdo Hasan Al-Shuaibi, the older brother of Muhammad. He said that after the Friday prayer had finished, he went to the valley to call on his brother Muhammad for lunch and bring the sheep back home. In the middle of the road he saw his brother being carried on the shoulder of one of the village men.
“I thought he fell to the ground and hurt his foot,” Dhiya’a added.
“When I got close to them and saw blood dripping onto the ground from my brother’s leg which was bandaged up with a shawl, I knew there was another reason.”
Muhammad was taken to Taiba Health Center in Shaban area, Jableh district, for treatment. Yet, the Health Center refused to receive him. He was taken, therefore, to Al-Raja’a Hospital in Al-Dhehhar district, where doctors made a surgery for him to remove the bullet and ligate the arteries torn by the bullet.
For a month and a half, Dhiya’a has been taking his brother, who was restricted from movement, from the village to Taiba Health Center every week for cleaning the surgical wound and replacing the bandages and plaster cast. In each time, they travel more than 51 km.
Dhiya’a explains that the bullet that hit his brother was fired in a wedding in one of the neighboring villages, and that the sheikhs and leaders of Al-Masaliqah village had signed an agreement prohibiting gunfire at weddings. However, this did not prevent any casualties of falling-bullets discharged from the neighboring villages that still hold the custom of celebratory gunfire at weddings. A month before Muhammad was injured, the village recorded the injury of a 9-year-old boy, named Dhaif Allah Al-Ezzi, with a falling-bullet entered a side of his body from the back and out from the stomach. Fortunately, none of his vital body systems was damaged.
Although it may be a moment or step that separate a victim from their tragedy, the calamity afflicting them cannot be attributed to their moment of jinx or bad luck. There are those who caused it out of premeditation.
Zainab Abdo Salem Al-Zubaidi (14 years old) is a Lahouh (a kind of Yemeni bread) street vendor at Al-Thawra General Hospital Street, Ibb city. Four months ago, Zainab’s father had to move his family from Al-Jarahi district of Al-Hudaydah governorate to Ibb governorate, where he works in selling vegetables, to save himself the hassle of moving between the two governorates, and to take the advantage of the transportation costs in providing his family with the basic living needs.
This step did not reduce his financial troubles. On the contrary, it exacerbated them due to the deterioration of the Yemeni Riyal rate and consequent rise in prices, especially real estate rental costs. So, he was forced under the urgency of the need to agree to Zainab’s proposal to assist him. From here, the most painful chapter of Zainab and her family’s tragedy began.
Every day, Zainab would leave her father’s house at 7:00 am, carrying a plate full of Lahouh on her head and return at 2:00 pm. In the time between her leaving and returning home, there was a story of drudgery, toil, and patience, which is written every day by the little girl, Zainab, with the same boldness and persistence that neither windy nor sunny skies weaken them to help her family lead a decent life.
It was Monday, July 27, 2020, when Zainab left home on the same time of everyday, with the plate of Lahouh positioned firmly on her head, as if it was a part of her body. She walked steadily from her parents’ house, which is located in the neighborhood of Al-Thalatheen Street and consists of two rooms. When she arrived her spot, Zainab, or the Lahouh vendor as her clients call her, sat down on the sidewalk next to the gate of Al-Thawra General Hospital in Al-Dhehhar District in Ibb city to sell out the Lahouh made by her mother.
Zainab was not aware that her life would change after a few hours of sitting on the sidewalk, and that she would turn from a helper for her family into a burden that not only burdens their shoulders, but also bleeds their hearts. At 1:15 p.m. on that fateful day, while she was selling Lahouh in her usual location, Zainab suddenly fell to the ground.
A bullet from unidentified source entered the left side of her head and settled at the bottom of her brain. That bullet disabled her movement and subsequently brought her into the ICU at the hospital that she used to stand in front of one of its gates to sell Lahouh.
The faces of families of the falling-bullets victims are always identical, as they show the pure grief and infinite pain manifested in their bale gazes. It is like a person who feels pain and is unable to diagnose it, and if diagnosed, they cannot know the thing causing it.
I called Zainab’s father, and set an appointment to meet him. On Monday, August 10, I met him next to Al-Nasr Hospital, where Zainab was staying.
Abdo Salem Al-Zubaidi says,
“I was home at that time. We were all waiting for Zainab to return to have lunch together as every day when my mobile phone rang. The caller was a friend who also works next to Zainab on Al-Thawra Hospital Street.”
He added,
“As soon as I answered the phone, the caller told me that my daughter Zainab suddenly fell to the ground, and that she is currently in Al-Thawra Hospital. I hung up the phone and headed to the hospital quickly.” He continued, “I got scared when I entered the hospital, searching for my daughter in every room and section without finding any trace of her.”
Zainab’s father explains, “I went out to the street looking for the friend who called me. While I was asking people about him and inquiring about my daughter, a little girl told me that there was a girl passed out and taken to one of the pharmacies, which the street is full of”
The grieving father moved to the pharmacies, asking about Zainab. He found her in a pharmacy that he no longer remembers its name… She was unconscious. He said, “I took her home because I thought she passed out due to hunger or heat stroke. It never occurred to me that she was hit by a falling-bullet.”
He continues,
“At home, after we failed to wake her up, I examined her body, which was completely lifeless and motionless. There was no sign of her being alive except her weak breaths and her eyes that are looking at me tiredly without saying anything or responding to my begging for her to blink them if she was hearing me.”
There was blood dripping from Zainab’s head, but her parents thought it was caused by her fall to the ground. The next morning, when she did not show any response to her parents, their fears increased and intensified.
Zainab’s father continues,
“On Tuesday morning, I took her to Ibb Scan Center to take CT scan for her head. The CT scan showed that there was a bullet in my daughter’s head. No one in or nearby that place heard a gunfire. But, the bullet was there, in the head of my little girl.”
The bullet entered the left side of Zainab’s head and settled in the bottom of her brain, and she needed a surgery.
The little girl, Zainab, was referred to Al-Hamd Hospital. There, her father was asked to pay YER 400,000 for the surgery only, excluding the costs of medicines, tests and hospitalization. The father says,
“I have never got an amount like this my whole life. I work in selling vegetables. Such an amount is a fortune for me. Therefore, I took Zainab to Al-Thawra Hospital, in which she remained in the intensive care unit for nine days. Nevertheless, the surgery was not carried out for her due to a shortage of medical tools and supplies.”
Two days later, the director of Al-Thawra Hospital ensured the surgery for the Lahouh girl-vender in another hospital for free. Zainab underwent the surgery, and she regained her consciousness and ability to speak, but she is still bedridden because her left side has become permanently paralyzed.
On Monday evening, shortly after my meeting with the father of the little girl Zainab, while browsing the news websites, I read news that the child Alya’a Adel Muhammad Ali Ahmed, (12 years old), was hit by a falling-bullet when she was playing on the roof of her family’s house in Bani Medsam sub-district of Ibb rural district.
I contacted some friends in Bani Madsam sub-district to verify the information in the news site. They confirmed that the news was correct, and reported that she lives in her father’s house in Khalban village, Bani Madsam sub-district of Ibb rural district.
On August 24, 2019, I was already in Khalban village, on a work mission for Mwatana, in order to document some of the violations against one of the village children.
Khalban is one of the villages of Bani Madsam sub-district of Ibb rural district. It is located at the foot of Maifa’a Mountain, on a small hill, where houses were constructed randomly, but, in a captivating order. Its old houses are built of black stones joined with mud, so that they appear from afar as if they were successive strokes of the brush of time, while modern ones are built of bricks and cement.
Down in the village, there is a stream to drain rainwater floods coming from the area of Mashwarah and several other areas. It is a course of floods made by rainwater for centuries, and is used by the residents of the village as the only road leading to their village. Most men of the village, including Alya’a’s father, moved to southern governorates to work for daily wages.
I got the mobile phone number of Alya’a’s uncle, and called him to find out more details about the incident. He expressed his regret for not knowing the details. However, he said that Alya’a was referred from Al-Thawra Hospital in Ibb to Al-Thawra Hospital in Sanaa, and that she is currently hospitalized there in accompany of her father.
I called Alya’a’s father to get information from him. After two minutes of my call, he got unable to speak. So, he passed the phone to Ahmed Hassan Abdu Qasim Al-Wasili, a resident of Khalban village volunteered to accompany Alya’a and her father who suffers from a handicap in one of his legs.
Ahmed said,
“On the evening of Tuesday, August 4, 2020, it was raining heavily on the village, so Alya’a’s mother went up to the roof of the house to benefit from the rainwater in washing the clothes of her children.”
While the mother was on the roof washing clothes, Alya’a went up to the roof to play next to her mother under the raindrops. After a few minutes, the mother heard a hit. Busy washing clothes, the mother did not think that a blood stain would mark the life of the whole family forever and that it would be difficult for them to wipe it out no matter how much they scrub it.
The sound of the hit was nothing but the sound of cracking and fracturing the skull of her little girl by an unidentified falling-bullet, smashing the left side of Alya’a’s skull and face.
Alya’a fell on the floor, covered with the blood bleeding from her head. The mother, with the help of local residents, carried her to Al-Thawra Hospital in Ibb governorate. Then, she was referred to Al-Thawra Hospital in Sana’a, where she underwent two surgeries; the first was for her left eye, in which the bullet caused retinal tears, and the second to remove the bullet.
In his talk, Ahmed Al-Wasili explained the difficult financial conditions of the girl’s father and her family, which are preventing Alya’a from completing the treatment stages, as she is still in dire need for several surgeries to restore the eye, face and jaw.
According to the Mwatana’s team in Sana’a, one of the humanitarian medical service providers insured all the costs of surgeries and examinations that the girl still need to complete the treatment stages recommended by doctors.
On Sunday, August 23, 2020, Alya’a underwent three surgeries at the University of Science and Technology Hospital in Sana’a. The surgeries began at 11:00 am and continued until 4:00 pm. Alya’a was transferred to the surgery inpatient ward on Tuesday, August 25th, where the doctors removed the gauze that covered her left eye. Then, I contacted Ahmed, who is accompanying the girl’s father, and he said,
“I was there when the doctors removed the gauze out of Alya’a’s eye.. They removed it carefully, and reassured her. I and her father saw the extent of damage of her beautiful face, but we hid our sadness. We smiled to her, and she smiled back.”
Ahmed talked about a painful situation the little girl was subjected to in his presence, saying,
“I put my mobile phone next to her on the bedside table and forgot about it, busy with something I don’t remember! A few seconds later, she screamed agonizingly when she saw on the phone screen how her face had become after the surgery.”
After that situation, she could no longer bear to see her restored face and lifeless artificial eye. Instead, she spends her time grieving and crying.
Nonetheless, it does not seem that this sad bloody series would come to an end soon. While I was collecting the material of this blog, I accidentally watched a short clip of a documentary about weddings in one of Nicaragua rural areas. In that clip, I saw the joy in every face, tree, and piece of furniture the camera detected. Then, I thought of our wedding ceremonies that have the taste of blood and the smell of death.
For economic or recreational reasons, the summer is often a season of weddings in Ibb and all governorates of Yemen, as it is the season of heavy rains that fall on all mountains, valleys, and hills to cover them with bright greenness, as well as the return of water to streams and small rivers that are dusty by the med of fall and beginning of winter.
In the afternoon of last Tuesday, 4th, August, when the villages adjacent to Dherras village of Nakhlan sub-district, Al-Sayyani District, were celebrating the weddings of some of their people, Abdullah (7 years old) and his brother Khaldoun (14 years old) were grazing their three sheep in the pasture next to their father’s house.
The two brothers were having fun without looking away from the sheep grazing next to them. Suddenly, Abdullah fell on the grassland of the pasture… A falling-bullet penetrated his diaphragm and reached his heart.
Khaldoun didn’t know what to do, when he saw too much blood flowing out of his brother’s chest. He was completely incapable of understanding the situation. He was petrified for seconds, staring at the blood that was spurting out of his brother’s chest onto the grass, before he ran home crying to inform his father.
As soon as his arrival to the pasture, the father embraced his little son, and sensed the wound with his hand. Then, he took off the shawl out of his head and wrapped it around Abdullah’s chest in an attempt to stop the bleed. The child, Abdullah Mansour, was taken to Al-Qaeda General Hospital in Al-Qaeda city, Dhi Al-Sufal district, Ibb governorate, but the bullet was more expeditious than all attempts of saving his life.
Days after the incident, I contacted Mansour Muhammad Ahmad Rajeh, Abdullah’s father, to inquire about what had happened, and he said,
“After Abdullah was injured, I carried him to the Al-Qaeda hospital. All along the way to the hospital, I had hope for his survival. Yet, the doctors told me upon my arrival that my son died at least ten minutes ago.”
He added, “This is the will of Allah. I know that fate is inevitable, but this absurdity must stop.”
The father of the victim believed that the bullet that hit his son Abdullah and ended his life came from one of the neighboring villages which were celebrating the weddings of their sons. He concluded by saying,
“They shot to celebrate the weddings of their sons, so they killed my son and set up a mourning tent in my house.”
This Blog was posted under cooperation with Mwatana for Human Rights.
