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Yemen conflict: As truce fails, residents in besieged Hodeidah city forced to eat rubbish to survive

Residents of Yemeni port city of Hodeidah are so hungry they are eating from rubbish dumps, while others are bleeding to death trapped in their bombed-out houses, as fighting has flared in the strategic port town after a UN-brokered truce collapsed. Though most charities have left the region, one NCF-approved charity, Save the Children, remains on the ground helping kids.

By Bel Trew, The Independent

Describing life caught in the cross-fire, Ashwaq Moharram, a Yemeni doctor from the area, said families were starving to death or dying trying to secure medical help as the conflict continues to cut off parts of the city.

Speaking to The Independent during a brief trip to Egypt to see sick family members, the trained gynecologist said she has watched injured civilians perish in ambulances trying to navigate treacherous mountain roads to safety.

Despite assurances that a ceasefire deal between the Houthi rebels and the recognized government would allow aid to flow into the port city, she said the truce failed before it even started.

Hodeidah, the main entry point for Yemen’s food and medical supplies, is still under sporadic fire.

“Areas suffering strikes and battles between both parties can’t be reached, even by military forces. A place like Dremy is still being targeted. When people are shot there, ambulances can’t reach them,” she told The Independent.

“In one area along the coast an entire family was injured in a strike and all of them died. Imagine a whole family bleeding to death,” she added.

She said supplies were drying up and food prices were soaring, meaning families were left digging through rubbish dumps to find food. For the last four years Ms. Moharram has run a mobile clinic providing aid and medical treatment to people in remote villages and towns but many locations are now out of reach.

Aid agencies warned that, over the last six months alone, more than half a million children have been displaced from their homes. Save the Children said that thousands of families were still streaming out of Hodeidah fearing renewed conflict and many were struggling to afford basic items like food, fuel and medicine.

Read the full story at The Independent. 
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