Yemen's Sanaa residents struggle under war and Houthi rule

Residents of Yemen's ancient capital Sanaa say war, poverty and Houthi repression have left them struggling to meet basic needs more than a decade after the movement seized the city.

The Iran-backed Houthis took Sanaa in 2014, forcing the government to flee south and helping trigger Yemen's civil war. The Old City, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited urban areas, was added to UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger list in 2015 after damage from fighting between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition backing the government.

Ammar, a 24-year-old university student who withheld his last name for security reasons, said his civil servant father receives half a monthly salary once every three months, while his mother, a teacher, receives half a salary each month. He said the family's income does not cover basic needs.

Iman, a mother of two, said her family tries to ration electricity and has to buy water from trucks because water is cut off in her neighbourhood. Residents said many households pay one electricity bill to the authorities and another to private generators during blackouts.

Living conditions have worsened in recent weeks with Saudi Arabia intensifying airstrikes on Sanaa, according to Houthi media and officials. Saba news agency, citing a spokesperson for the Houthi Ministry of Health, said 44 people were killed in the village of Al-Sharia in Sanaa province on Saturday.

Bilqis Abu-Osba, a former political science lecturer at Sanaa University, said poverty has eroded the salaried middle class and pushed many young people out of school. She also accused the Houthis of changing curricula to serve their political project and said people in the city fear punishment for expressing political views.