I was hoping to write about this once I was in Doha in order not to worry anyone. Yes, fighting broke out near Sana’a and they got within 12 miles of the city. It’s over now, so there’s nothing to worry about. I know it sounds bad, but things are under control. As usual, it’s difficult to figure out what happened, things that would usually be news are just rumors here. As far as I can make out, the government killed an important person in this area. That person lead some of the Houthis (a small sect of Shia muslims that are currently fighting the government up north) in that area, so his supporters decided to go all out in order to avenge him. It isn’t really clear why the government killed the guy, or even who it was that did it. I wonder if the parties involved even know…
There’s been an ongoing battle up north between the government and the Houthis. The war has been hot and cold over the last 4 years or so, but it’s pretty hot right now. I met a nice Christian couple last night and they told me about their experience up north in Sa’ada. How do I know that they’re Christian, they told me 3 or 4 times in our conversation… Anyway, they wanted to help, so they got together with a local NGO and they went up there to help distribute aid. There’s only one problem, foreigners are not allowed up there, certainly not Americans at least. The couple was letting the NGO “take care of things” and sure enough, they had no problems getting through all of the checkpoints getting up there. Once they got there, they were in hot water. Americans were not supposed to be there, and their presence made all of the people in command very nervous since they weren’t supposed to be there. Of course if the soldiers at the checkpoints had been doing their jobs, the couple would never had gotten up there.
It was a classic combination of do-gooders, Yemeni incompetence, and military paranoia. So after 36 hours in detention and a call to the embassy, everything was worked out. So yes, there are some problems here, and some of them might even be dangerous, but at least I have the good sense to stay the hell away from places like that. Don’t worry, everything is fine, people weren’t even talking about it, I had to ask around to hear about the fighting closer to the city. I’ll be home soon…