Yemen: Mother’s heartbreak at three children killed while playing – as families camp out in bombed-out buildings in divided city
Two pickup trucks with half a dozen heavily armed men on board escort us on the journey into the besieged city of Taiz.
They stay with us the entire three days we are inside the city. The talk may be increasingly of potential peace in Yemen but the war has never stopped in Taiz.
The city is split in two with Houthi militia controlling one half and government troops holding the other side.
We have to go through nearly 30 armed checkpoints between the port city of Aden and Yemen’s third-largest city. It’s a distance of 200km (125 miles) and in the days before the war, the journey used to take about two hours, sometimes less.
Alex Crawford (R) in Taiz, Yemen
Now, most roads are cut off by fighting, insecurity or territorial gains.
The city is reachable only through dusty, rocky paths which wind along some treacherous mountainsides.
And the journey means crossing territory held not just by government troops but also by different separatist groups who’re fighting for independence.
There are still small pockets of Islamic extremists but they’ve been largely neutered in this grinding conflict which has evolved into a regional proxy war, fuelled by Saudi Arabia supporting the internationally-recognised government and Iran which has been backing and arming the Houthi militia.
Right now, the journey can take six hours and many traders talk of having to pay “fines” at the multiple checkpoints as they transport much-needed supplies into Taiz. It’s made the journey both dangerous and expensive.
The siege imposed by the opposing Houthi militia has resulted in a slow choking torture for those civilians left in the city.
They struggle for food, find water, and to make any sort of living. We find several families camping in abandoned, bombed buildings near the frontline dividing the two opposing groups simply because it was “rent-free”.
One father called Mohammed tells us he’d had three children born during the siege while living in the basement of a bombed-out former shopping centre.
“Of course, I worry about their safety,” he says. “It’s not safe here. But I try to keep them inside as much as possible and tell them not to go out when we hear the explosions and shelling.”
Mohammed had three children during the siege
Mohammed fears for his children’s safety
Many of the homes are incubators for rockets and shells which have embedded themselves in the buildings but not yet detonated.
They all tell us of their fear of Houthi snipers who position themselves on high-rise buildings and pick off civilians including children and pensioners.
‘I will never leave my home’
We find Qabool Ahmed Ali, who says she is about 70 years old, in a hospital with a sniper bullet wound in her back. The bullet had exited her arm.
“I refuse to be pushed out of my home,” she tells us about her house near the frontline. “The Houthis kept shouting to me ‘why you still here you crazy woman?’, but I will never leave my home.”
Qabool Ahmed Ali, 70, was shot in the back
Some of those still there hang sheets and blankets up between their houses to try to obscure the snipers’ view as they move from home to street. And they’ve piled sand down certain streets to stop vehicles moving and attracting gunfire.
It’s dangerous, high stakes living in Taiz and with the enemies only a few hundred metres apart, there’s been constant if sporadic engagement between the two sides despite nationwide agreed truces and a lull in fighting for the best part of a year.
We see fighters moving around on motorbikes with their weapons slung over their shoulders.
‘We want peace,” 23-year-old Khalid Ali tells us. “It’s they [the Houthis] who don’t. They kill innocent people, even children, so we keep our weapons to defend ourselves.”
And there are tragically repetitive tales of children and families hit by random shells fired indiscriminately and without warning.
Children killed while playing outside
Fatima – who is a mother of nine – is beside herself with grief as she shows us the photographs of what happened to four of her children the day they were caught up in a shelling. The images of her dead and mutilated children are all she has left of them.
Fatima is grieving for four of her children who were killed by shelling
They are horrifying pictures showing how their young bodies were ripped apart by the explosion. Four of them were hit while playing together outside their home. The eldest, Leila, was around 12. She, her brothers Hameed, who was 10, and seven-year-old Mahmoud were killed outright.
Three-year-old Hamid survived but his left leg was amputated and he’s still receiving treatment in Jordan with his father by his side. Their youngest, two-year-old Malak, picks up the photographs as her mother is talking to us and beckons to her saying “Mahmoud! It’s Mahmoud”.
Graphic photos of her dead and mutilated children are Fatima has left of them
Malak, two, eats bread from the day before
Her mother responds through sobs. “Mahmoud is not coming back habibbi [my love]. He’s gone now,” she says.
Fatima has compiled a file to try to document what happened to her children. She wants justice.
“I want whoever did this to pay for what they did to my children. They were just children, just children. What did they do to deserve this?”
Alex Crawford reports from Taiz in Yemen with Sky Middle East editor Zein Ja’Far, cameraman Jake Britton and producer Ahmed Baider.
World
US blocks Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials from United Nations’ annual meeting in New York
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials have been blocked from attending September’s annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has revoked the US visas of delegates from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and denied others from applying for one.
It is the latest step by Donald Trump’s administration to target Palestinians with visa restrictions, and follows the suspension of a programme to allow injured children from Gaza to receive treatment in the US.
Mahmoud Abbas addressed the general assembly in 2024, but is barred from next month’s meeting. Pic: Reuters
“It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” a statement from the US State Department said.
It added that, to be considered partners for peace, both groups “must consistently repudiate terrorism, and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by US law and as promised by the PLO”.
Offensive will cause ‘intolerable deaths’
Several US allies, including France, Malta, and Australia have announced plans to recognise Palestine as a state at September’s United Nations General Assembly. Canada and the UK will too, unless Israel meets certain conditions.
Israel declared Gaza’s largest city a dangerous combat zone on Friday.
The army launched a planned offensive that has drawn international condemnation.
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Thick smoke rises from Gaza City after Israeli strikes
Foreign ministers from Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia and Spain released a joint statement saying the military operations in Gaza City will cause “intolerable deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians”.
Gaza latest: Israel’s Gaza City offensive condemned
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in Gaza City while enduring famine.
An Israeli armoured vehicle in northern Gaza on Friday. Pic: AP
Palestinians ride a truck carrying humanitarian aid in Gaza City. Pic: AP
The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Riyad Mansour, said Mr Abbas had planned to lead the delegation to the UN meetings and was expected to address the general assembly at the general debate, which begins on 23 September.
He was also expected to attend a high-level meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on 22 September about a two-state solution, a broad idea involving Israel coexisting with an independent Palestinian state.
The State of Palestine is an observer member of the UN, meaning it can speak at meetings but not vote on resolutions.
The State of Palestine cannot vote on UN resolutions. Pic: AP
US decision ‘contravenes international law’
The Palestinian Authority “expressed its deep regret and astonishment” at the visa decision, calling it “a violation of US commitments” as the host of the UN, and claiming it “contravenes international law”.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the world body would be seeking clarification in the “hope that this will be resolved”.
Hundreds of diplomats left when Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu began speaking at the general assembly in 2024. Pic: Reuters
The State Department said that the Palestinian Authority’s mission to the UN, comprising officials who are permanently based there, would not be included in the restrictions.
Under a 1947 UN agreement, the US is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York.
But Washington has said it can deny visas for security, extremism and foreign policy reasons.
Read more from Sky News:
Analysis: Israel is killing a lot of journalists
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The death toll in Gaza has now risen to 63,025, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
It also reported five more malnutrition-related deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number during the war to 322, with 121 of them children.
World
Brazil implores businesses to attend major climate summit, despite ‘second thoughts’ amid Trump backlash
The Brazilian hosts of the biggest climate meeting of the year have implored businesses to attend in November, amid concerns some are backing away from the climate agenda into the shadow of Donald Trump.
In an interview with Sky News, Ana Toni, chief executive of the COP30 climate summit in November, admitted some companies were having “second thoughts” about the global switch to green economies because policymakers were creating uncertainty.
The US President Donald Trump has been attacking wind farms and waging tariff wars that could slow the transition to green energy.
Banks including HSBC and Barclays have ditched a net zero alliance set up just four years ago by Mark Carney, now the Canadian Prime Minister.
Ana Toni, Brazil’s climate secretary, is chief executive of the COP30 climate talks. Pic: Reuters
But even before Trump took office, tech companies were quietly dropping climate targets to prioritise energy-hungry AI, and other businesses were “greenhushing” their climate initiatives for fear of backlash.
In this environment, there are fears fewer business leaders will attend the annual talks, which are also being hosted in a city on the edge of the Amazon that hasn’t enough hotel rooms.
On Friday, the COP30 team wrote to business leaders urging them to “step forward, not back” and travel to Belem, despite “logistical challenges” and the “background of systemic uncertainty”.
Ana Toni told Sky News: “We are very concerned that the enabling conditions must be there so that the private sector can also deliver where they do best, which is bringing in technology, bringing innovation and accelerating the process of decarbonisation.”
In August the share price of Danish wind farm developer plummeted after the US halted its Rhode Island wind farm, while the British Tories and Reform parties are also attacking net zero.
Ana Toni met with King Charles and leaders of other COP summits at Clarence House last year. Pic: Reuters
But Ms Toni there is “nothing to panic [about], because we can see that the transition is inevitable,” citing major progress in China, India and Europe and Brazil.
Referring to the US’s withdrawal from the COP process, she said: “198 countries minus one is not zero. And we will put all our efforts of working with the 197 countries that want to go forward and want to protect their population.”
“Climate action is not only [still] cool, it is necessary,” Ms Toni said.
“We all need to face reality. We are going through a huge climate crisis… If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Companies understand that.”
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