Mrs. Angelina Jolie, the esteemed artist and Special Envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
There is no doubt that your courageous and kind initiative in visiting Yemen is highly appreciated. We hope that it will contribute to drawing the world's attention to the humanitarian crisis left behind by local and regional political parties that lack the minimum level of responsibility and conscience.
Although we were not informed as media professionals - or as civil society organizations - about the details of your visiting program, but with the state of uncertainty in which we have been languishing for nearly eight years of war, we do not doubt that the parties to the conflict benefit from showing themselves as angels of mercy and history-makers. They may go even more to pretend their virtue and innocence of the catastrophe they have deliberately perpetrated with their own hands.
However, we are sure that you do not lack experience in dealing with such offenders, and you have been destined to visit several hotbeds of conflict in different parts of the world. There is no doubt that you have seen devastation spread all around you, and by visiting the camps of the displaced in this war-torn country, you may have terrible moments while talking with the women and children most affected by the devastation. Shall we have to accompany you on part of the trip - to fill in the gaps that you - on your quick visit - will not be able to see or spot?
Of course, you passed from Aden International Airport, and you were lucky that the plane that picked you, is a private plane belonging to the United Nations. Perhaps you will be surprised to learn that this airport is one of only two airports that the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE have allowed to operate for Yemeni civilians, along with another airport in a remote part of the south of the country.
There is no doubt that you will be told that the airport was subjected to a missile attack, in December 2019, by the Ansar Allah group, which led to the death and injury of a large number of civilians, including humanitarian workers.
The ongoing war and its agents affected everything including vital sectors such as the economy, education, health which were severely deteriorated, in addition to the dispersed and displaced Yemenis, in displacement camps, and some of them are starving, and some of them are exhausted by their suffering, difficult living and their arduous struggle for survival.
Did the officials there also tell you that, a few days ago, they detained dozens of passengers on a Yemeni Airlines plane, for nearly six hours, in a stifling condition and without air conditioning, and there were conflicting reports at the time that the plane’s cargo cabin door was broken, and that the Arab coalition did not give permission to take off?
In fact, this is not the first time that travelers have been treated with such inhumane manner! There are passengers who died on flights before they could reach their destination for treatment.
Did they tell you that this dilapidated and perilous airline is the most expensive airline in the world? No, they won't, we're sure of that.
Did they tell you that dozens of Yemenis are dying on the roads only because there are those who decided and closed the airports in front of them, and that there are those on the other side who made reaching travel destinations as hard as an indescribable torment?
Do you see the security checkpoints that greet you with welcome, through which you pass smoothly and easily on board the armored international cars? It is the same security points that prevent Yemeni citizens from entering the city of Aden without legal reason or justification.
We have learnt that you have arrived in Lahj Governorate, which is an opportunity to put you in the picture of what is happening there, exactly where you are now, in early September 2021, a military checkpoint killed a young Yemeni man on his way back from the United States to his remote northern town. The motives for the crime, and the way it was committed, sparked shock and widespread popular discontent, as two possibilities were suggested as to why the Southern Transitional Forces had committed this crime; the first motive was because he was a northern citizen, and the other was because he was carrying his own money.
You will leave the southern provinces, in which powerful armed factions swear allegiance to the Emirates, but behind you are hundreds and hundreds of male and female travelers who did not have guarantees of safe access to their interests or destinations, including safe travel through the airport.
You will enter areas on the map of south-central on your way - perhaps to the northern provinces. But if they chose for you the shortest way of passing, the pre-war road, then you will be lucky to made you an exception, and then we will not doubt their malicious intentions to miss the historical moment for you.
These are the ones who turned Yemeni travel into a form of hell. The short hours of travel have become days and nights, as the civilian, who has nothing to do with what is happening, is obligated to use the long routes through bumpy roads among reefs, valleys, and mountains, during his travels. Also, the check points affiliated with the other party, Ansar Allah (Houthis) ask the traveling woman on these roads about her mahram (legal companion, while all parties refuse to grant the woman a traveling document without the identification of a guardian.
The city of Taiz has been besieged for eight years by the Ansar Allah group (Houthis), and it is cut off, and only receives food and medicine supplies through a dilapidated southern artery. This road has become a trap for hundreds of food and medicine trucks, which fall on both sides of this road because of its roughness, narrowness and being out of service.
Sana'a is also looking forward to your visit; the city that used to bring together all Yemenis, has become, as a result of the war, more than an environment for coexistence. Freedoms and rights in this historic city are being massacred.
It is governed by customary laws imposed by armed men, who believe that they are religious guardians of the population. Day by day, women's participation in public gatherings is diminishing, and isolation measures have been imposed between males and females in private and public facilities.
In conclusion, the war and its shepherds destroyed everything, including the economy, education and health. Yemenis are currently scattered and displaced, some of them in displacement camps whereas some of them are starving, and some of them are exhausted by their suffering difficult living and their arduous struggle for survival, while children are being used as war fuel. Additionally, public employees are cut off from their salaries since the fall of 2016, while the funds of the collapsing state go to the pockets of a group of warlords, who see the war cessation as a danger that undermine their interests. We know they won't tell you about stealing or obstructing humanitarian aid, or about using children as fuel for their ongoing battles.
