'We are trapped in war': one year on and still no end in sight for Yemen

The basement has become the only refuge for the people of Sana’a.

A loud sound in the street, even the bang of a teacup on the table, is enough to send the children scurrying to that place they know all too well, after a year of airstrikes and destruction.

“You sit down for lunch and you put a cup on the table and it makes a sound and they flinch as if they expect it’s a bomb,” said Hisham al-Omeisy, a father of two children and political analyst based in the Yemeni capital.

“You now see a six-year-old saying, ‘When I grow up I want to be a pilot and bomb the Saudis because of what they’re doing to us’,” he added. “The social fabric has been ripped apart.” One year of war has left Yemen – already the Arab world’s poorest country – torn apart, with faltering peace prospects and fading hope that the country could one day be put back together.

Saudi Arabia launched its aerial bombing campaign on 26 March 2015, after the Riyadh-backed president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, was overthrown by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from northern Yemen.

Since then, the cities of Aden and Taiz have been reduced to rubble, militias reign supreme, militants from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula have seized control of strategic towns and Islamic State has established a foothold in the country.

The Guardian attempted to travel to Sana’a for the anniversary of the conflict, but repeated attempts to secure permission from the Saudi-backed government were not granted. Flights into Sana’a are stopped and searched in Saudi Arabia.

A UN-brokered truce is expected to come into effect in April, ahead of peace talks in Kuwait. After an airstrike on a market in Sana’a earlier this month killed dozens, Riyadh significantly scaled back its campaign in the capital.

But unemployment and poverty are rife in Sana’a, electricity has been non-existent for much of the last 10 months, prices have risen exponentially, thousands of civilians have died, child soldiers are fighting in horrific numbers, and 80% of the population is in need of humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, none of the stated goals of the Saudi military campaign have been accomplished.