Micah_Albert_CA
Red Sea, Yemen
Venturing deeper into the volatile seas off the coast of Yemen towards Somalia and Djibouti, fishermen like Abdalla Abrahem must spend more time and travel further into these troubled waters to find fish and support his family. Earning at best $10 a day, Abrahem and the rest of the people in the small village of 600 called Dobaba, along the hot arid Red Sea coastline, are one of the communities that are in dire need of food assistance.
Heading off the coast of Yemen in Bab al Mandeb, a narrow strip of sea only 12 miles across where the Middle East and Africa are there closest, Abrahem and I and a few others head out for a day of fishing.
I arrived in this area after a three-hour drive from Taiz. Descending down more than 4,000 feet through a lush oasis-like winding canyon with palm trees and camels everywhere, the temperature must have increased 30 degrees or more.
I arrived at the village of Dobaba and was shocked to see a series of villages in the middle of this unforgiving landscape and families trying to scrape by on the wind-swept plane. It’s one thing to not have enough to eat, but another thing all together to have to by your water.
Yemen isn’t just food insecure, it’s also facing a water crisis. Yemenis consume 2.8 billion cubic meters of water while renewed water in the aquifers does not exceed 2.1 billion cubic meters. Estimates indicate that the Western part of the country, where nearly 90 percent of Yemen’s population lives, will run out of water in the aquifer in ten years. Drilling in this region requires going to the expensive depth of 1,000 meters. Compared to only 40 meters 25 years ago. Nothing about this village is sustainable and yet they cannot afford to travel the long distance to Taiz let alone afford to live in such a city. Furthermore, their dependency and skill sets revolve around the sea.
Yemen’s food problems stem from multiple sources going back many years. During the Gulf War in 1991, Yemen supported Iraq politically, but not militarily. In retaliation, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait expelled as many as one million Yemenis. The Yemenis and their families relied heavily upon remittances. As a result, unemployment skyrocketed and inflation has run rampant.
Recently, rebel activity and border conflicts with Saudi Arabia have prevented Yemen’s ability to develop oil reserves in the North. Yemen’s oil refining industry relied on crude from Iraq and Kuwait, which dried up during the war and meanwhile, the US slashed its economic aid by nearly 90%, further fueling the fires of discontent and sparking the growth of the Fundamentalist Islamic movement.
Back in the village, Abrahem's daughter Shema attends a government-run girls school. “We are thankful that our children can receive a good education, but we still need food.” “What good is education when you can’t eat?”
After returning from the Sea and we give our fish to a local cook and we enjoy the best meal I’ve had on this trip. Relaxing and taking in the much-needed shade, I see a group of people walking towards the building. It’s a group of completely exhausted Somali refugees that just landed on the beach.
As I spend my last day in Yemen, hundreds continue to flee civil conflict in Somalia by making this hazardous journey across the sea I was just on all arriving on the beach I’m enjoying my lunch. Nearby is a makeshift graveyard that the UNHCR has buried over 500 bodies recovered on the beaches around Bab al Mandeb.
These exhausted new arrivals, who are given automatic political asylum, will soon be picked up and driven to the camp that I was at last week.
Another full day; convicting to use the word exhausted. I have no idea what that word means.
Red Sea, Yemen
Venturing deeper into the volatile seas off the coast of Yemen towards Somalia and Djibouti, fishermen like Abdalla Abrahem must spend more time and travel further into these troubled waters to find fish and support his family. Earning at best $10 a day, Abrahem and the rest of the people in the small village of 600 called Dobaba, along the hot arid Red Sea coastline, are one of the communities that are in dire need of food assistance.
Heading off the coast of Yemen in Bab al Mandeb, a narrow strip of sea only 12 miles across where the Middle East and Africa are there closest, Abrahem and I and a few others head out for a day of fishing.
I arrived in this area after a three-hour drive from Taiz. Descending down more than 4,000 feet through a lush oasis-like winding canyon with palm trees and camels everywhere, the temperature must have increased 30 degrees or more.
I arrived at the village of Dobaba and was shocked to see a series of villages in the middle of this unforgiving landscape and families trying to scrape by on the wind-swept plane. It’s one thing to not have enough to eat, but another thing all together to have to by your water.
Yemen isn’t just food insecure, it’s also facing a water crisis. Yemenis consume 2.8 billion cubic meters of water while renewed water in the aquifers does not exceed 2.1 billion cubic meters. Estimates indicate that the Western part of the country, where nearly 90 percent of Yemen’s population lives, will run out of water in the aquifer in ten years. Drilling in this region requires going to the expensive depth of 1,000 meters. Compared to only 40 meters 25 years ago. Nothing about this village is sustainable and yet they cannot afford to travel the long distance to Taiz let alone afford to live in such a city. Furthermore, their dependency and skill sets revolve around the sea.
Yemen’s food problems stem from multiple sources going back many years. During the Gulf War in 1991, Yemen supported Iraq politically, but not militarily. In retaliation, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait expelled as many as one million Yemenis. The Yemenis and their families relied heavily upon remittances. As a result, unemployment skyrocketed and inflation has run rampant.
Recently, rebel activity and border conflicts with Saudi Arabia have prevented Yemen’s ability to develop oil reserves in the North. Yemen’s oil refining industry relied on crude from Iraq and Kuwait, which dried up during the war and meanwhile, the US slashed its economic aid by nearly 90%, further fueling the fires of discontent and sparking the growth of the Fundamentalist Islamic movement.
Back in the village, Abrahem's daughter Shema attends a government-run girls school. “We are thankful that our children can receive a good education, but we still need food.” “What good is education when you can’t eat?”
After returning from the Sea and we give our fish to a local cook and we enjoy the best meal I’ve had on this trip. Relaxing and taking in the much-needed shade, I see a group of people walking towards the building. It’s a group of completely exhausted Somali refugees that just landed on the beach.
As I spend my last day in Yemen, hundreds continue to flee civil conflict in Somalia by making this hazardous journey across the sea I was just on all arriving on the beach I’m enjoying my lunch. Nearby is a makeshift graveyard that the UNHCR has buried over 500 bodies recovered on the beaches around Bab al Mandeb.
These exhausted new arrivals, who are given automatic political asylum, will soon be picked up and driven to the camp that I was at last week.
Another full day; convicting to use the word exhausted. I have no idea what that word means.