REPORTAGE. "Lack of services", "lack of electricity" : Shibam, showcase of the collapse of Yemen after ten years of war

After ten years of war, Yemen is very difficult to access, and direct accounts of the situation are rare. Franceinfo was notably able to visit the town of Shibam, an example of cultural heritage in danger in the country due to lack of funding to maintain and renovate it.

The city gives the impression of being transported into a tale of One thousand and one nights. It also served as a setting for the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini which adapts the anthology. Tight streets, ocher and white walls stuck together, doors and windows made of honey-colored cedar wood… It’s a stroll through time. “Some buildings are almost 500 years old, explains Abdulrahman al-Habshi, who lives in the area and knows it very well. The city is built with mud bricks. It was a very good choice at the time. But with the change in climate, with the increase in torrential rains, with flooding, it has become a real problem. In the last two years, two or three houses have collapsed.”

Shibam is a picture of the disintegration in which Yemen finds itself, twelve years after the start of the war against the Houthis. A common thing in the country, the city is the victim of power cuts. “There is electricity for three hours, then there is no electricity for three hours, détaille Abdulrahman al-Habshi. It’s worse in other regions, but it’s a big problem for a town like Shibam. Because, during outages, people use big generators. The vibrations they cause in this historic place weaken buildings and can damage the structure of buildings. continues the city dweller.

A vulnerability visible on the facades of the city which struggle to resist the lack of maintenance. “The water drainage system must be maintained regularly. But today, the government and local authorities do not have the money to do it. Six months ago, there was a leak. The water went under a house which was almost 300 years old and which collapsed. collapsed due to faulty evacuation”, déplore Abdulrahman al-Habshi.

Shibam is supported at arm’s length by UNESCO, which launched an emergency plan six years ago. Some 176 buildings were renovated. But the town feels abandoned by its own state and is gradually emptying of its nationals. “Today, the government is doing nothing to preserve the city, analysis l’historien de Shibam, Alwy Asmet. In the past, we had 13,000 inhabitants. Now, we are below 3,000. It’s because of the lack of services, the lack of electricity. It wouldn’t be complicated for the government to find a solution for the power, it’s a small town. But he doesn’t take care of the problems.”

A situation all the more critical as Shibam, which was an important crossing point for tourism, was emptied of its visitors. The series of Al-Qaeda attacks which hit the sector in 2019 did not help matters. “I haven’t had any visitors for three days, regrets Rejab Said, who runs an antiques shop in a narrow alley. There was a group of tourists, then no one. Before the war, there were people here. There were a lot of visits, a lot of purchases. Now, what I earn from the store is not enough to pay for my house and feed my family. There is an explosion of prices here…

War, lack of unity within the country, failure of institutions, interference from Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates… Yemen is in a state of survival. “Everything was affected by the situation, déplore Abdulrahman al-Habshi. Political and military conflict affects everything. We have big problems for education, for health, for the economy; people are barely surviving at the moment. I can tell you that 90% of the population lives below the poverty line, which is truly tragic.”