(Meenakshi Sundaram, 58, and his wife, Geetha, have lived and worked in Yemen for nearly 30 years. They returned to Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.)
Word got out during the day on Wednesday, March 25, that war planes were being huddled between the border of Yemen and Saudi Arabia. We had long been suspecting that the issue was turning international. Towards the evening, we were told that Gulf Air and Qatar Airways, two big airlines, had suspended their services in Yemen. We were expecting more disasters.
In the early hours of Thursday (1:30am), our residential building suddenly vibrated and we were awoken by a massive explosion. The Saudi forces had started air strikes and we had learned that anti-aircraft bases installed in military camps in the mountainous city of Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, were targeted by war planes. The Houthi rebels retaliated with anti-aircraft measures.
During the day, things appeared normal outside our homes. The Saudi army aircraft started hitting Houthi military bases and presidential palaces (in Sana'a, belonging to the previous president, Ali Abdullah Saleh) were bombed on Thursday evening; this continued till Friday early morning. The same routine followed the next night. Most shops then closed; a few were able to sell essentials like bread and milk. And we could not go by car anywhere as there was a scarcity of petrol.
Throughout my stay in Yemen, I had seen a lot, including the Civil War of 1994 and the Arab Spring of 2011. But none of those situations had caused as much stress and fear as these air strikes. During previous wars/uprisings, one could at least leave the country by air from any major city of Yemen. This time around, this issue had been raised to an international level, and there was absolutely no means of transport by land, sea, or air routes. All the international airports (Sana'a, Taiz, and Aden) had been closed by the rebels since March 23. The major port cities of Aden and Hodeidah were subject to air strikes and therefore, a rescue operation with boats or ships was not feasible. Furthermore, it wasn't even possible to travel by road to nearby cities as the local rebels/tribesmen (The Houthis) were seen everywhere carrying ammunition and war-tanks. In some cities, terrorist attacks were being spearheaded by suicide-bombers of terrorist groups in Yemen.
During the air raids, we stayed safely and jointly together with our neighbors on the ground floor. Spending three whole days together, we lived in fear yet comforted one another. At night time, we could hear and see the war planes soar right above our houses, and the horrifying sounds shook our hearts. The women and children started crying, and some of them even fell sick, but we managed with first-aid kits at our home. We worried if we could survive till the end of the night so we could see daylight. We used to huddle together in a big central hall with no windows, and the main entrance door was kept open for an immediate escape in case the building was hit and collapsed.
Thanks to God and the prayers of our family and friends, nothing of that sort occurred. The air raids were conducted twice or thrice each night, with the intensity increasing each night.
On Friday, when we approached the Indian embassy in Sana'a, they said that they were trying to evacuate all Indians and we had to constantly be in touch with their officials. But unofficially, we got information from our reliable sources/friends that some of our fellow Indians would travel with UN officials and some key employees of oil companies in Yemen in special aircraft. Again, we approached the Indian embassy and were told that since this was not an official evacuation measure organised by the Indian government, we would have to pay for our tickets. Ships were already said to have been sent from India, but we knew it would take them around five days to reach us and we felt we couldn't wait (nobody in their rightful minds would have chosen to) and decided to bear the expenses on our own and be flown to a nearby country. At 4 pm, we were told the Saudi Arabian government had not given the plane clearance to fly and we returned home.
On Saturday, we were asked to arrive to the airport in Sana'a and try our luck again. We managed to board a flight and were flown to Djibouti, a small country on the north-eastern coast of Africa. We paid for a visa on arrival to the country, flew via Istanbul and Mumbai back to Coimbatore on Air India and reached our home safely.
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