- Title: Air strikes maim, scar Yemen's children
- Date: 25th September 2019
- Summary: HODEIDAH, YEMEN (AUGUST 30, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF YEMENI CHILD AMPUTEE WITH PROSTHETIC LIMB, ISMAEL ABDULLAH, PLAYING FOOTBALL WITH FRIENDS ABDULLAH'S FEET ABDULLAH PLAYING FOOTBALL VARIOUS OF ABDULLAH CARRYING JERRYCANS AND WALKING ABDULLAH PUTTING JERRYCANS ON MULE ABDULLAH AND FRIEND PUTTING JERRYCANS ON MULE ABDULLAH RIDING MULE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) YEMENI CHILD AMPUTEE WITH PROSTHETIC LIMB, ISMAEL ABDULLAH, SAYING: "I used to live in 'Ahem triangle', then the triangle was hit and we left to my uncle's house. Then one day, on Arafa day (the day before Eid al Adha), there was an air strike on my uncle's house and my left leg was amputated, two of my cousins died and eight people were wounded." VARIOUS OF ABDULLAH'S AMPUTATED LIMB AND PROSTHETIC LEG ABDULLAH VARIOUS OF ABDULLAH PUTTING ON PROSTHETIC LEG (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) YEMENI CHILD AMPUTEE WITH PROSTHETIC LIMB, ISMAEL ABDULLAH, SAYING: "The strike was very sudden and felt like someone pulled my leg, but then I realised it was blown off. We were rushed to Abs." WIDE SHOT OF IDP CAMP VARIOUS OF ABDULLAH WITH FAMILY MEMBERS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABDULLAH'S UNCLE, ALI FETEENI, SAYING: "We were asleep and then felt an explosion at dawn prayer - by a Saudi air strike - martyring one of my kids, and one of my relatives, and Ismail lost his leg and eight people were wounded. We rushed those injured to Abs, and then from Abs to Hajjah." ABDULLAH WALKING VARIOUS OF ABDULLAH DIGGING HOLE ABDULLAH WALKING AWAY (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) YEMENI CHILD AMPUTEE WITH PROSTHETIC LIMB, ISMAEL ABDULLAH, SAYING: "Back in the day, the (humanitarian) organisations didn't come to Abs. I had to stay in bed for two years, but when the Abs Organisation finally opened, they installed a prosthetic leg for me and thank God now I can walk wherever I want." ABDULLAH RIDING MULE ABDULLAH GETTING OFF MULE VARIOUS OF ABDULLAH FILLING UP WATER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) YEMENI CHILD AMPUTEE WITH PROSTHETIC LIMB, ISMAEL ABDULLAH, SAYING: "Before my leg was blown off, I had finished grades one and two. But since then there wasn't a school close by and even right now, I don't go to school." HAJJAH, YEMEN (AUGUST 31, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CAMP FOR INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WITH CLUTCHES AROUND CAMP VARIOUS OF AMPUTATED WOMAN AT TENT AMPUTATED WOMAN WALKING OUT OF TENT EXTERIOR OF DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION SIGN READING (Arabic/English): "Abs Development for Women and Children" (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) OFFICIAL AT ABS DEVELOPMENT FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN, MOHAMMED DHEYAB, SAYING: "Because of the continuing war during this time, there are a lot of people who are suffering because of this ongoing war. Many of the patients who were treated at Abs development organisation - specifically the project to protect child emergencies, which is funded by UNICEF - are around 150 cases (received help) including case supervision, medical treatment, financial aid, prosthetic limb installations or removal of shrapnel. There has been a lot of cases and we're still open for more." WOMAN WALKING INTO TENT PEOPLE IN FRONT OF TENT CAMP
- Embargoed: 9th October 2019 12:16
- Keywords: Hodeidah Hajjah Yemen Saudi-led coalition strikes Internally displaced Yemenis Yemeni amputees
- Location: HODEIDAH AND HAJJAH, YEMEN
- City: HODEIDAH AND HAJJAH, YEMEN
- Country: Yemen
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA001AY5P4K5
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Ismail Abdullah kicks a makeshift football, wrapped in pink plastic, with his right foot. A slight limp visible, he holds back as his cousins run forward in the sand.
Twelve-year-old Abdullah lost his left leg in an air strike three years ago. Yemen's four and a half-year war means medical care is hard to find and he waited two years for a prosthetic.
In 2016 Abdullah, his parents and his eight siblings left their home in Harad, a town near the Saudi border in northwest Yemen, because of shelling. They moved in with his uncle nearby but on a September night, just before the Eid al-Adha religious holiday, an air strike hit.
"The strike was very sudden and felt like someone pulled my leg, but then I realised it was blown off," Abdullah said. Two of his cousins were killed in the same strike.
The United Nations says tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced in Yemen's civil war, which pits the Iran-aligned Houthi movement against a Saudi-led coalition backed by the West. Thousands have lost limbs and have no access to prosthetics.
Abdullah was rushed to Abs, in the province of Hajjah, where he was treated in hospital. Two years after he lost his leg, the Abs Development Organisation for Women and Children - a humanitarian operation - opened and arranged for him to travel to the capital Sanaa to be fitted with a prosthetic.
"I had to stay in bed for two years, but when the Abs Organisation finally opened, they installed a prosthetic leg for me and thank God now I can walk wherever I want," Abdullah said, sitting down with his prosthetic removed revealing the stump below his left knee.
The prosthetic is a basic plastic calf and foot pulled over his knee with what looks like nylon tights.
Wearing his green flip-flops, Abdullah is now able to collect water from the tank and dig holes for tent stakes in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp where the family now lives, near the town of Khamis. He hopes to be reunited with his father, who recently left to look for work, and also to resume his studies.
"Before my leg was blown off, I had finished grades one and two. But since then there wasn't a school close by and even right now, I don't go to school."
Eighty percent of people in Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, need humanitarian assistance and millions are on the brink of starvation.
Of some seven million school-age children, two million are out of school completely, the United Nations says. Non-payment of teachers' salaries has also impacted the availability and quality of education for Yemen's children.
(Production: Abdelrahman al-Ansi, Tarek Fahmy) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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