YEMEN 2017 — A Photo Essay.. Some previously unpublished moments… | by Giles Clarke

5 May 2017. A boy with the family cow in the Abs displacement settlement just 40kms from the Yemen/Saudi border. This remote region of Yemen is one of the hardest areas to reach for United Nations and humanitarian aid groups. With precious little rainfall and limited access, the settlement is a harsh and unforgiving place to live.

18 April 2017. A group of Yemeni men gather to barter chickens and food in the outskirts of Sana’a City.

13 April 2017. Driving by the Al-Salah Mosque in Sana’a City. The largest mosque in Sana’a, the 294.000 sq ft building was built in 2008 with a great hall that has a capacity for some 44,000 people.

2 May 2017. Humanitarian aid supplies packed tight in the UNHCR warehouse in Sana’a City. Latest UNHCR figures have determined that 20.7 million people in Yemen require humanitarian assistance with just under 2 million internally displaced. Over 84% of those 2 million Internally Displaced Persons have now been displaced for over a year- many in rough, hard to reach settlements.

27 April 2017. Young footballers hold a trophy aloft after winning the cup in a match organized in a UNICEF run camp 30km south of Ibb City.

3 May 2017. Sana’a City residents fill the truck of a car as the rain comes down in the Yemeni capital.

23 April 2017. A boy in the ruins of his school in Saada City, North Yemen. According to UNICEF, here are currently over 3 million + children in Yemen who unable to attend school as the war enters a third year of conflict.

22 April 2017. A view of Ibb City located some 5 hrs driving south of the capital of Sana’a. Ibb City is the last major town located 4 hours south of Sanaa by road and just 60km north of the besieged and still conflict-ridden city of Taiz.

22 April 2017. The twisted remains of a pickup truck close to the main road from Sana’a to Saada City.

24 April 2017. A burnt-out oil tanker next to a sandy crater caused by an airstrike on the outskirts of Saada City.

5 May 2017. On a winding mountain road near Hajja in the rugged central Yemen region. Yemen has some of the oldest known villages in the Middle East with dwellings dating back thousands of years. Many of the mountain region areas have fortified buildings that are strategically perched, some as high as 7,000ft above sea-level, on craggy escarpments that overlook the desert landscape.

14 April 2017. Marginalized and displaced, the ‘Muhamasheen’ people wait for rides in a nearby town near Khamir in Amran Governorate. The Muhamasheen have been a socially long-ignored and ‘tribe-less’ group within Yemen for centuries. The majority live in constant displacement and their numbers are thought to be around 3 million across the now-fractured Yemeni peninsula.

14 April 2017. Marginalized and displaced; ‘Muhamasheen’ women begging on the road outside Sana’a in Amran Governorate.

14 April 2017. Children run to hitch a ride on a concrete brick lorry on the outskirts of Sana’a City.

25 April 2017. A potato seller at work in an Ibb City Sunday market. Local residents rely heavily on local produce as imported goods have dropped to a trickle since the latest war began in March 2015. As the war grinds on, foodstuff prices have been driven up as farmers face water shortages and safe access to markets.

22 April 2017. Young Batool, aged 6, in a severe-malnutrition ward in Saada City. Following a brief 3 month recovery after this photograph was taken, Batool finally succumbed to cholera at the end of July 2017 and was buried by her parents on August 5th 2017.

2 May 2017. In an UNHCR supported community IDP shelter in Sana’a, Mohammad Ghalib Ahmad, 75 years tells his story of how he was displaced from the city of Taiz, in early 2016, after his house was destroyed in heavy urban conflict. The city of Taiz is currently cut off from the rest of the country as Houthi and former government loyalists fight for ground within the city limits.

17 April 2017. Driving through jagged and spectacular mountain passes on the way from Sana’a to the Red Sea port of Al Hudaydah.

5 May 2017. At the vast displacement settlement of Abs in North East Yemen, a women walks towards to a water point where the twice daily rations are dispersed. Pitchers are placed by settlement residents and marked with personal tags to ID each family ration.

23 April 2017. A veiled mother holds her severely malnourished baby in a Saada City hospital located 5 hours north of Sana’a. There is currently only one working hospital in the city with medical supplies and qualified staff in very short supply. UNICEF estimates that over 500,000 children are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Yemen. Local doctors and WHO figures reveal a child dies every ten minutes in the beleaguered war-torn country.

24 April 2017. Children stand in the ruins of damaged traditional mud adobe building in a small town a few kilometers south of Sadaa City.

24 April 2017. A mother and child walks through a damaged area of a village on the outskirts of Saada City.

5 May 2017. IDP’s in the Abs settlement near the Yemeni/Saudi border gathered around a Oxfam-donated water container as a sand storm rolls over the darkening landscape.

24 April 2017. A swirling sand spiral makes its way over the barren dusty Yemen landscape some 75 km north of Sana’a City. With no foreseeable end to the current conflict in Yemen and with all political parties in deadlock, the poorest nation of the Middle East Yemen now faces a turbulent and desperately uncertain future. (Photos and captions by Giles Clarke/Getty Reportage for United Nations OCHA)

YEMEN 2017 — A Photo Essay.

Some previously unpublished moments whilst on the road with United Nations OCHA during April/May of 2017. Photographs and captions by Giles Clarke/Getty Images Reportage.

Written by Giles Clarke