Contrasting Journeys: One boy goes to school, the other suffers the war| Photos: Ali Al-Senaidar Contrasting Journeys: One boy goes to school, the other suffers the war| Photos: Ali Al-Senaidar

An image clicked in 2017 still haunts Ali Al-Senaidar, a photographer based in Old Sanaa, Yemen. He remembers the faces of the two boys—aged 13-14—very clearly. One boy, wearing a blue thawb (robe)super game, is walking alongside his father on a near-empty street. Both father and son are holding hands; both are casually carrying Kalashnikovs on their shoulders and are walking away from the camera.

Walking towards the camera is another boy, of the same age, wearing olive green pants and a shirt, hands in his pocket, hair neatly combed and a school bag on his shoulder. The boy wearing thawb turns and looks at the boy with the school bag. A range of emotions is seen in his eyes—sadness, deprivation, envy. At that very moment, Al-Senaidar clicks the image. Little did he know that it would haunt him for a long time.

This story was published as part of Outlook Magazine's 'War And Peace' issue, dated January 11, 2025. To read more stories from the Issue, click here.

“The contrast between childhood innocence and the reality of war affected me deeply,” he says. The image stayed with him for many days. “To cope with the emotional trauma, I decided to express my feelings through my lens. My aim is to document such painful moments to raise awareness because the situation in Yemen is bad,” he adds.

Leaving Home: The city of Taiz—considered to be the cultural heart of Yemen­—has been devastated by the war | Photo: Asmaa Waguih Leaving Home: The city of Taiz—considered to be the cultural heart of Yemen­—has been devastated by the war | Photo: Asmaa Waguih

The Middle East has been on edge for many years now. “Presently, all eyes are on Syria, Israel, Gaza and Lebanon. People think that the situation in Yemen is stable, but it’s not. It’s getting worse by the day. Yemen must not be forgotten,” says Ahmad Algohbary, a Yemeni journalist who moved to the Netherlands recently because covering the conflict and telling heartbreaking stories became too emotionally draining for him.

People are exhausted. The civil war that began in 2014—when Houthi forces took over the capital city Sanaa and the government—has left Yemen in crutches. The UN-brokered truce in 2022 came as a hope, but the pause in fighting between the Saudi-led coalition and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen is at risk due to recent Houthi actions supporting Palestinians in Gaza. “The Houthis have repeatedly attacked ships transiting the Red Sea in response to Israel’s war on Hamas, threatening to destabilise the situation in Yemen yet again,” says Algohbary. The truce is far from perfect. It falls short of a comprehensive plan to negotiate a lasting peace in Yemen.

Dwindling Parameters

The humanitarian crisis remains dire. As per UN agencies— based on March 2024 estimates—an estimated 4.5 million people are currently displaced, nearly 21.6 million are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, more than 4.5 million children do not attend schools and nearly 18 million Yemenis don’t know if or when they will eat another meal.

“If bullets and missiles don’t kill them, hunger and starvation will,” says Algohbary. More than 2.7 million children are acutely malnourished. “Once, I spent two days in a camp in the middle of a desert. I was shocked to see that people were eating flour mixed with water with some tea. They were not getting enough protein. They had not eaten chicken, meat or rice in a long, long time. Many women were cooking some leaves and herbs and giving them to children,” recalls Algohbary.

There is no strategy to cope with food insecurity in Yemen that has not been tried, says Muneer Bin Wabar, who has over 15 years of expertise in Yemeni affairs. “Daily life in Yemen is in a state of continuous deterioration,” he adds.

The economy is facing mounting crises. “There is a sharp decline in state revenues, a continuous deterioration in the value of the national currency, a lack of confidence in investments, and a near-total paralysis in the maintenance and development of infrastructure,” elaborates Bin Wabar. “A very large proportion of the population still depends on aid from international organisations, remittances from relatives abroad or financial assistance from donors,” he adds.

Nearly 19.7 million people lack access to basic health services; only 52 per cent of health facilities are fully functioning and of those, most lack specialty physicians, equipment and basic medicines. “This means either death from treatable diseases or incurring the exorbitant cost of travel and treatment abroad,” says Bin Wabar.

Children are the most vulnerable as they can easily fall victim to mines and explosive devices. The psychological effects of being deprived of one or both parents or of displacement, migration and harsh conditions are profound. Education is in a dire state. Teachers’ salaries are not regular or even sufficient to meet their needs. There may not be enough textbooks and proper educational infrastructure. This means a generation that is less educated, less skilled and therefore less able to build a bright future, adds Bin Wabar.

War Lessons: (Top) A photograph clicked in 2019 shows a classroom lacking even the most basic facilities. After two months, benches, a board and a door were provided with the funds that were raised(Bottom) War Lessons: (Top) A photograph clicked in 2019 shows a classroom lacking even the most basic facilities. After two months, benches, a board and a door were provided with the funds that were raised(Bottom) The Emotional Cost of the War

Asmaa Waguih, an independent photojournalist based in Cairo, visited Yemen at different times regularly since 2016 and has been reporting on the civil war. It always intrigued her how only a small number of foreign journalists was keen to report on Yemen, despite the staggering scale of the war and why the Western media called the conflict in Yemen an ‘invisible war’ or a ‘forgotten war’.

During her initial visits, she encountered the after-effects of air raids. She remembers how there was no electricity, and people were forced to use solar panels. Gun-loving culture is deeply rooted in Yemen and Waguih remembers people freely buying guns from open markets. In many shops, young boys were working as sellers. It was common to find people walking around wearing traditional clothes with Kalashnikovs casually strung on their shoulders. She remembers how most people were extremely poor. “They have oil and gas, but Yemen is still the poorest country in the Arab world. The country has really suffered due to years of war. There is not enough food. The education system has collapsed. People are not able to send their children to schools. Many women and children are sustaining on humanitarian aid. I noticed that families were moving from the Houthi-controlled areas because they did not want their sons to be recruited by the Houthis,” she says.

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After covering the war over a period of time, Waguih decided to document the civil war in Yemen by publishing a book containing 150 full colour photographs, contrasting scenes of everyday life for the people of this nation with the effects of an ongoing conflict between rival Yemeni factions, regional powers and their proxies. Her book—Unfinished War: A Journey Through Civil War in Yemen—released this year.

“The reason I decided to write the book is because it’s like nobody cares about you if you are not strategically placed. Many war-torn countries are in news but people genuinely don’t know about the situation in Yemen. By writing stories and by documenting the war, at least there are chances of people waking up to the civil war and the devastating impact it has had on the small country. My book is about Yemen, where Yemenis are telling their own stories in their words,” she says.

Every time she visited Yemen, she felt it was getting more and more fragmented and getting worse than the previous visits. When asked about a particular image or incident that either broke her heart or filled her with hope, Waguih talks about the city of Taiz—considered to be the cultural heart of Yemen. It was here that she witnessed that a large number of people had suffered because of landmines. “Being there really disturbed me emotionally. I met a lot of young men who had lost their limbs and legs. When I was leaving the city in 2016, I was literally crying. It was heartbreaking to see a beautiful city reduced to this war-torn region,” she says.

While the devastation in Taiz that Waguih witnessed over the years continues to haunt her even now, for Al-Senaidar, who is still in Yemen, survival is an everyday battle. “The situation on the ground has been terrifying, and day by day, we have tried to adapt to the changing circumstances. I have seen many families flee. The homes of many have been destroyed right in front of my eyes. Many have lost their jobs and livelihoods due to the war,” says Al-Senaidar. It has impacted him at a personal level as well. The family struggles to obtain the most basic necessities, as daily life has become fraught with obstacles. His family lives in constant fear, he says.

Though he has chosen to tell the painful stories of Yemen through his lens, the photographic journey has been emotionally draining. “As a photographer, I have witnessed many conflicts and airstrikes. I swing between sadness and anxiety. Every picture carries a painful narrative behind it,” he says.

When asked to share the story behind a photograph that filled him with hope, he talks about the image of a school building that he clicked in 2019.“I clicked this image of children studying on the ground in a government school that lacked doors and windows, as well as proper school desks. After sharing this photo on one of the platforms, I was, within a month or two, able to raise funds to provide school desks and build six classrooms. That moment was filled with hope, and it proved to me that efforts can make a difference, even in the darkest circumstances,” he says.

What does the future look like for the people of Yemen? “There is no hope. The future looks bleak and uncertain,” says Bin Wabar. “However, beyond the complexities of politics, I believe that local communities can build a better future if they are empowered and focus on responding to their real needs and building their capacities. Yemenis need vision, leadership and hope above all else, and then things will take care of themselves with determination and resolve,” he adds.

His words were not just a testament to his self-belief but also a glimpse into the fierce determination that would come to define his illustrious career. Perhaps that's why in the realm of hockey, few names command the respect, love and admiration that Sreejesh does.

(This appeared in the print as 'The Burdened')super game

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