Displaced mothers in Taiz collect plastic bottles to provide for their children
Reuters has highlighted the human suffering experienced by displaced mothers in the city of Taiz, southwestern Yemen, amid escalating military confrontations and worsening living conditions, forcing them to collect and sell plastic bottles to provide for the minimal needs of their children.
In a report published on Friday, the agency said that two displaced mothers were forced to leave their village about three weeks ago and are now living in a damaged building in Taiz city under harsh conditions, facing shortages of food, blankets, and heating as temperatures drop.
The report quoted Fatima Abdullah Qassim, a mother of eight separated from her husband, as saying that her family fled on foot in the middle of the night after clashes reached their village of Al-Siyahi in the Dhubab area, west of Taiz. She noted that they spent two days in the open before moving to the building where they currently reside.
Qassim explained that she lost one of her sons to a landmine explosion in 2017, and today she struggles to provide for her children's needs amidst a lack of basic necessities, including blankets, stressing that the cold exacerbates her family's suffering.
The report mentioned that Qassim and another widow named Intidhar Ahmed Saeed, a mother of seven, used to work as vegetable sellers before being forced to collect plastic bottles and containers to sell for securing food for their children.
Saeed said that the financial return from collecting plastic materials is not even enough to provide food for her children. She explained that she works for 1,500 Yemeni rials, less than one dollar, and sometimes has to ask others for potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers to feed her family, given the lack of job opportunities.
According to the report, the city of Taiz hosts about half of the newly displaced people in Yemen, who number around 300,000 due to the recent fighting, according to the United Nations.
Reuters added that the city has been living in near-total isolation since the third of October, with escalating clashes between Saudi-backed government forces and the Iran-aligned Houthi armed group, which has hindered the arrival of humanitarian aid and restricted the movement of civilians leaving conflict zones.
المصدر: Reuters
