Faj Attan location The political and military conflict in Yemen between the Saudi led coalition of Arab states and the elected president, against the Houthi Militia and the former president Saleh has left major vital areas of the capital city Sana’a abandoned and paralyzed, making them almost ghost districts within the city. Neighborhoods have been demolished to ruins, houses flattened down to nothing and many innocent civilians lost. The intensity of the coalition airstrikes varied according to the weapons used, and so was the irreparable damage. This article covers one of many districts that were severely destroyed beyond repair due to the heavy weapons used against weapon storage bunkers on the hill above it, and continues today to remain a target of coalition airstrikes.
Faj-Attan, a district in western Sana’a, was one of those places that lie right in the heart of the capital yet far enough to be calm and serene. Prior to the conflict, it was quite new but it expanded quickly over the years and became one of the city’s fanciest neighborhoods. Aside from all this, it was also one of the army’s largest weapon storage units in the whole city. Legends are told among locals of how the storage unit was built by digging deep into the mountain undisclosed caves for eight years and how it has nine blast-barrier doors, making it impenetrable to break through by any means.
Abandoned streets in Faj-Attan
The presence of a large portion of Yemen's R-17 Elbrus (Scud-B) missiles and Transporter Erector Launchers (TEL) are believed to be in the storage units in the mountains, which is now under the control by the Houthi Militia, has made it a recurring target to the coalition airstrikes since the first week of the conflict to this present day causing a large scale damage to property and overall, civilian lives.
The type of missiles dropped on the site varied in intensity and number since the start of Operation Decisive Storm in Sana’a on the 25th of March 2015. There were days when the airstrikes would target the mountain overlooking Faj-Attan for days to demolish layers of the mountain to uncover the weapons storage.
The airstrikes on Faj-Attan did not only impact those who live in the vicinity but also those who live miles away. Salwa Al-Abiad, who I meet and lives in the old radio station neighborhood, was immensely affected by the constant shaking and noises the aircraft and anti-aircraft guns produced. In her words, ‘every time they raid the city we live in extreme anxiety, stress and fear. We have no political affiliation what so ever, I don’t understand all this hate, I am scared for my son and my family and its impossible for anyone not living here to understand our suffering or what we feel and go through every day. We used to empathize with Iraq, Palestine and Syria but its different when we live this every day. Besides feeling scared we feel wounded, hurt and betrayed by the world”.
In the beginning of the airstrikes, families started fleeing Faj-Attan in hopes of finding refuge with a relative or friend’s house for a day or two, but when it took too long and the situation didn’t seem to be getting any better many of the families went back to their houses. The sudden start of the airstrikes and blockade of air, land and sea transportation have turned the civilians’ lives upside down. The lack of proper evacuation plans for the residents in the targeted areas, along with the absence of crises control centers, and the already deteriorating services of health, water and electricity worsened the situation and put the residents in grave danger. But all that did not stop them from coping with the situation and living with the minimal possible a human being would need.
In the morning of the 20th of April 2015, the whole city shook like an earthquake hit it, and after a few seconds it witnessed the strongest explosion since the start of the attacks. The sky was filled with black smoke and mushroom clouds. The Scud missile storage units started spitting out exploding armaments which sparked a series of explosions, houses in the district were destroyed, windows of buildings miles away shattered, cars burned, pedestrians on the streets were injured and killed by the flying debris and others thrown back by the pressure and intensity of the explosion - 46 innocent lives were lost, and 300 more were wounded. Almost two months after the incident and Faj-Attan is still taking airstrikes.
Burnt out cars and buses from the explosion
I went to visit the district. It is almost a ghost town, every now and then I saw a car passing by or a person rushing as if to avoid any sudden air strikes. The whole neighborhood lurks of death, abandonment, injustice, and fear.
One of the many damaged houses in Faj-Attan
I managed to find one particular young man by the name Fares Mohammed. His house has been destroyed and almost reduced to ruins after the attack on the Scud missile storage unit. He said, “Before the crises, we did struggle a bit with the necessities of life like electricity, water, and fuel as there was constant shortage, but we always found our way around. We worked hard to make our dreams of getting educated, having jobs and building families with the little resources we had.”
Interior damaged to Fares Mohammed's home
As Fares explained, life was not as simple even before the conflict, it only took a turn to the worse. In Fares’ words, “but now we don’t even have the little hope we had a few months ago. Universities and schools have closed down till further notice, students lost a whole academic semester, year 12 examinations have been put off, many companies closed down and thousands of jobs were lost leaving a lot of families without a source of income…and due to the absence of running water, our kids are being used to fetch water from local mosques every day. More than half of the neighborhood houses and buildings have been destroyed; there is no way anyone can afford to rebuild what was destroyed. The building I live in has taken a pretty bad hit too, after the big explosion three rockets exploded out of the storage unit and hit the building, the apartment above ours has been destroyed completely, my neighbor and his wife were still in it, they were no causalities, but his wife got a miscarriage from the scare. The building on the other side of the street was cut in half by the explosion, a whole family died leaving behind a 12 year old orphan girl. Pedestrians lay dead on the streets and cars were burning, despite this I still live here and we still get raided every now and then but I can’t move away to a safer area because of the absence of jobs and a stable income. I hope this gets resolved fast so we can start rebuilding our lives again”.
All the windows shattered or blownout on Fare Mohammed's home
Exterior shot of shattered windows on Fare's Mohammed's home
Ahmed Yahya, a resident near Faj-Attan said, “The hardest part of the raids Faj-Attan took was the noise of the huge explosions and not knowing when to expect them. The worst, when the windows shattered and filled the floor, we saw people running out of their houses because it was not even safe to stay indoors”
The intensity of the explosion bent the metal doors of storefronts
The Yemenia Airways office was one of the severely damaged buildings, a staff member who chose to remain unnamed narrated her story as follows, “I was catching up with my colleagues when the windows suddenly exploded, I watched as the glass from the window flew into one of my co-workers head and blood rushed from his mouth and head, the other was thrown back by the explosion pressure, I stood in shock and didn’t know what to do”
Commercial building with all windows blown out
Interior damage to Yemenia Airways office
The impact of the explosions in Faj-Attan has gone beyond the district and reached houses over 7 miles far, stores, malls and show rooms windows landed shattering on the streets and women and children were heard screaming from almost every house, some ran to the streets uncovered because glass from the windows stabbed their bodies. The fear that there might be a series of similar explosions has made a large population of the city migrate to the villages on the outskirts of Sana’a. While some chose to cross the borders under hard conditions for safety in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, some succeeded and some remain stranded on the borders waiting for approval to cross. The population left inside the country hope for a humanitarian cease fire, truce or soon a solution to the conflict.
Even with the start of the holy month of Ramadan, the situation hasn’t gotten any better. Life under siege has only made it worse for the citizens living in airstrike prone areas like Faj Attan. Even though charities and initiatives have been trying hard to meet with the needs of the displaced families, international organizations have not yet been able to provide the help needed to the majority of the population in need. The current humanitarian situation in all the targeted areas and the rest of the city are deteriorating quickly.
