Donkeys used to smuggle aid to besieged Taiz

Yemenis are using donkeys to smuggle food and medicine to hundreds of thousands of civilians in the southwestern Taiz province, which has been under Houthi siege for weeks, a Yemen news network reported on Tuesday.

“The siege by the Houthis and their allies have prompted activists and other Yemeni people to use donkeys to transport drugs, food and other relief items to the besieged people there,” Masdar Online said in a report from Yemen.

“They are going through mountains, valleys and other rugged areas to smuggle these items away from the eyes of the Houthis and their allies.

“Taiz city is now suffering from disastrous conditions because of the siege and random shelling by the coup rebels.”

A relief aid official in Taiz said last week that the random bombing by the Houthis and their allies has killed more than 1,500 civilians and destroyed schools and other institutions in the province of nearly 3.4 million.

More than 10,000 children were also orphaned while over 15,000 people were injured, many of them seriously, said Mohammed Al Qarmi, information director in the coordinated humanitarian aid agencies in the stricken province.

He said Taiz, with an area of around d 12,600 sq km, is suffering from “extremely serious” humanitarian conditions and needs urgent international intervention.