A Yemeni infant suspected of being infected with cholera receives treatment at Sabaeen Hospital in Sanaa, on June 13, 2017. (AFP photo)
SANAA, June 29 (Xinhua) -- At al-Sabeen park in Yemen's capital Sanaa, parents can forget the daily war event temporarily as they saw their children play on swings and with toy guns, at least for the few days of Eid al-Fitr festival.
Ahmed al-Mutawakil, 38, came to the park along with his wife and their child. "We come here to calm during Eid holiday," he said, referring to the festival marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
"We need our salaries to be paid, we want end of war and we hope and pray for peace," said al-Mutawakil, who works as a journalist with the state Saba news agency, which is, along with all state ministries in the capital, under control of rebel Shiite Houthi authorities.
The al-Sabeen central park is the largest state-owned land at the heart of Sanaa, which fell under Houthi fighters in late 2014.
The park, with few visits in its pre-paid section, is crowded in its free section as the swings there are provided gratis.
Sitting on a park bench, al-Mutawakil said that he and his family walked half way and took a bus to the park from Sawan district, about 20 km northeast of al-Sabeen area, as a saver.
"Unlike previous Eid festivals, this year I did not buy new clothes for my only five-year-old child, because I do not have enough money," he said.
"I have sold my wife's gold to pay my house rents for previous months ... and my pregnant wife is about to bring birth and that will cost me a lot of money ... while no Houthis nor government paid our salaries," he added.
The same situations are with al-Mutawakil's colleagues, neighbors and apparently all residents of Sanaa.
Besides the devastating war, people are suffering from hike of food prices, permanent cutoff of electricity and water supplies, spread of cholera disease, and 10 months of unpaid salaries.
About one million Yemeni state employees have gone largely unpaid for 10 months after the government shifted last year the central bank from Houthi-held capital Sanaa to the southern port city of Aden to strip the Houthi rebels of money, local media reported.
Experts said the move triggered soaring food prices, severe shortage of foreign currency, sharp declines in Yemeni national currency exchange rates and basic needs imports.
Moreover, the plan failed when UN urged warring sides in Yemen to free the Red Sea port city of Hoheidah from potential fighting, therefore ensure the flowing of commercial and humanitarian aid.
The United Nations Security Council proposal stipulates the withdrawal of Houthi fighters from Hodeidah. In return, the government would resume salary payment to the state employees.
The proposal was rejected by Houthi group, considering it as "not neutral," despite Yemeni exiled government's approval.
Hodeidah is the only seaport to the territories under control of Houthis, through which commercial imports and humanitarian aids enter.
The Saudi-led coalition has accused Houthis of smuggling weapons from Iran to Yemen through Hodeidah and called the UN to take control over it. The Houthi group denied the accusation.
Meanwhile, in the cities, the unattended public services, including cutoff of electricity, poor sanitary systems and pileup of rubbish on the street, are causing massive spread of cholera disease, killing hundreds of thousands.
Just about 500 meters northeast of the al-Sabeen park, many infected with cholera disease are crowded to receive treatment at the state-run al-Sabeen hospital.
Jabr Ali, a 29-year-old jobless young man, died in the fourth day of Eid holiday.
His brother said he suffered a severe vomiting and diarrhoea the second day of the festival and were taken to al-Sabeen hospital before diagnosed as cholera.
"He stayed two days at the hospital receiving medicine, but then doctors said he was recovering and ordered him to return home," Ahmed added, saying the family was not expecting such devastating blow.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) figures, the cholera infection has killed 1,400 people and infected 218,798 others in the war-torn Yemen in just two months.
The rapidly spreading cholera outbreak in the country has been "increasing at an average of 5,000 a day ... One quarter of the epidemic victims were children, and the death toll is expected to rise," WHO said, describing it as the "worst cholera outbreak in the modern history."
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a joint statement that "this deadly cholera outbreak is the direct consequence of two years of the heavy conflict."
They also said that rising rates of malnutrition in Yemen have weakened children's health and made them more vulnerable to the disease.
Health workers, who play the largest role in fighting the disease, have also been unpaid for nearly 10 months, said the statement.
More than 7.6 million Yemeni people and more than 3 million internally displaced persons currently live in areas affected by the cholera outbreak, WHO said.
The war pits the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebel movement against a Sunni Saudi-led military coalition after Houthis toppled Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government more than two years ago.
The Saudi-led coalition forces backing Hadi started military intervention and sea-air-land siege in March 2015, trying to recapture territories, including Sanaa, and reinstate Hadi into power.
The war has since killed more than 10,000, displaced around 3 million as the all-out siege has caused severe shortage of imports of medicines and food.
