A child walks near a market destroyed by airstrikes during the ongoing war in Saada province, Yemen, March 19, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)
SAADA, Yemen, March 26 (Xinhua) -- On March 26, 2015, the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government after the Iran-backed Houthi group seized much of the north.
But five years of grinding civil war has followed the intervention with no end in sight yet.
In the Houthi-held northern city of Saada, the residents, like others across the country, lost their livelihoods because of the war.
"We appeal to the whole world to end this war and blockade which are killing us," Hossam Mohsen, a resident of Saada whose shop in the city's old market was bombed at the beginning of war, told Xinhua.
"Our shops were struck. They were not military camps or government sites ... We are citizens. We were bombed and workers there killed, and now we has no business or source of livelihood," he said sadly.
Ibrahim Salah, once a shop owner in the bombed old market, is praying for the return of peace to the land.
"We have suffered from this war, and so do all people after the bombing of homes, schools, roads and markets," he lamented, urging the warring parties to sit at the negotiating table for the sake of all Yemenis.
In the Rahban village of Saada city, dozens of houses were bombed and reduced to rubble in 2015.
Standing on the rubble, Qassem al-Mutamayez and his son, who were among the survivors of the fateful day, recalled the tragedy of their family and neighbors.
"One night, warplanes were flying over the village and carried out raids that hit 17 houses ... and most of the families are still displaced now, and are unable to rebuild their homes," al-Mutamayez said.
The United Nations is trying to end the Yemeni war that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 3 million, destroyed infrastructure, triggered deadly epidemics and pushed over 20 million to the brink of starvation.
