Thousands return to Sanaa during brief pause in Saudi airstrikes

There were signs of normalcy on the streets of Yemen on Wednesday when airstrikes halted, but fresh attacks began again shortly after 5pm .

A Yemeni driver hands over an explosive to a deminer at the scene of an airstrike  carried out by the Saudi-led coalition on a nearby Houthi controlled missile depot in Sanaa, on April 22, 2015. Thousands of families returned to Sanaa during a pause in the air campaign by the Saudi-ledcoalition. Yahya Arhab/EPA
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SANAA // Thousands of families returned to Sanaa on Wednesday morning after Saudi-led airstrikes halted temporarily.

Life in the streets of the Yemeni capital appeared normal for the first time in nearly a month, as children played in the streets and long lines formed outside petrol stations.

In the early hours the city was calm as residents experienced their quietest night in almost four weeks.

And when morning broke, there were no new scenes of devastation, while Houthi checkpoints were nowhere to be seen across Sanaa. With noone willing to openly oppose the Shiite rebels, however, the group was still in control of the city.

Hospitals were still packed from the hundreds injured in Monday’s airstrike on a civilian neighbourhood next to the Attan military depot that killed 46 people.

“We lost our jobs and our kids need to go to school. We suffered enough and were forced to live alone while our families are in a safe area but its over now,” said Saleem Ali Nagi, a construction engineer in Sanaa.

“There is still a humanitarian crisis and we don’t have electricity or petrol. But at least now we might have safety,” he added.

To help much needed aid to reach Yemen, newly appointed vice president Khaled Bahah led a Yemeni delegation to Bahrain on Wednesday for a two-day visit to discuss the crisis.

Saudi coalition spokesman, Brig Gen Ahmed Al Assiri, said on Wednesday that the military operations will not stop but the targets will change and focus on the Houthi movements.

Saudi-led airstrikes began targeting the Attan military depot in Sanaa after 5pm local time on Wednesday – the first attacks on the capital since Riyadh declared the night before that it would halt its four-week air campaign against the rebels.

The Houthis were still on high alert and said they had not changed their strategies.

“We know the Saudis were lying and that is why we will continue with our goals until they are serious. We are open for talks but we will also fight back the Saudi oppression and interference in Yemeni affairs,” said Bakeel Habish, a senior Houthi official.

“The Houthis have not changed in their stance since the Saudi war started. They have been weakened in one way, but also gained by spreading to new areas throughout Yemen and controlling dozens of military bases,” said Ameen Juman, a Yemeni security official not aligned with the rebels.

“With every civilian death, Houthis also gained more support from the people,” he added.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Yemen’s humanitarian situation was “catastrophic”, and that a political solution seemed distant.

“The collateral damage done to the civilian life and property by the airstrikes as well as the ground fighting is absolutely shocking, particularly in the cities of Sanaa, Aden, Taez and Marib,” ICRC regional director Robert Mardini said on Wednesday after returning from a three-day trip to Yemen.

The aid agency urged all warring sides to facilitate aid delivery and appealed for funds to provide food for 20,000 families in Yemen over the coming three months.

foreign.desk@thenational.ae

* with additional reporting from Reuters

foreign.desk@thenational.ae