Displaced Yemenis in Marib Suffering Inside Tents During Eid Which Feels Like “Any Other Day”
(AWP) - Residents of a displacement camp in the city of Marib, Yemen, say they cannot experience the joys of Eid al-Adha while living away from home and loved ones, in tents that offer no protection against the harsh changes of seasons.
A father who resides in the camp questions how they should celebrate Eid when they do not have any food for the day, let alone the ability to buy udhiya (sacrificial animals in Islam).
“This Eid is like any other day. We cannot fool ourselves or others. We do not have the peace of mind from being at home,” said Ali Sarhan, a displaced man in al-Sweida camp.
He added, “We do not have any udhiya because it is so expensive. Some people do not have anything to eat during the day. The price of the Eid udhiya is above 400,000 or 500,000 Yemeni riyals [roughly $1,600 to $2,000]. Who can afford this? Some are lucky to have a hen as an udhiya.”
Sarhan’s neighbour Abdel-Salam Hameem reminded the world about the “despair and misery” experienced by the displaced, far away from their homes. The risk of flooding is one of the particular concerns expressed by the UN in a recent report about Yemen’s displacement camps.
Hameem told the Arab World Press (AWP), “How do you celebrate Eid away from your family, your friends, your neighborhood and home? We are marking it with despair, sadness and misery. I am a displaced man who left his home, my people and everything to live inside a tent amid the wind, sun, dust and miserable conditions.”
He added, “Thank God for health, but this Eid is just like any other day of the year for us. We are suffering from a lack of all of life’s essentials.”
In Marib, there are 201 camps spread across the governorate’s districts, accommodating thousands of families who lost their homes since the beginning of the current war nearly 10 years ago.