BBC OS Conversations: Life in Yemen
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2024
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With concerns around further instability in the Middle East – as well as international trade – Yemen is the focus for many around the world. The Red Sea runs along part of the country’s coastline, and it is in these waters where cargo ships have been attacked. The US and UK have responded with air strikes against the Houthis, the armed political and religious group, which is responsible for targeting the ships. These events are against the backdrop of a recent civil war in Yemen and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
We wanted to talk to people in Yemen to get a sense of what day to day life is like. Host, James Reynolds, is joined by two Yeminis who live and work in the capital, Sanaa, which is controlled by the Houthis. “It looks like normal life,” Radhya tells us. “But if you are sick you will not find a proper health system, there is no good education system at all – the disaster in Sanaa is not something you can see with your naked eye.”
Others inside Yemen have sent us messages and we bring together three people who have left the country. They talk about their home and hopes to one day return. “I imagine Yemen before the nightmare, before the war,” says Ahad. “It was a beautiful place and I wish for it to go back to how it was before.”
A Boffin Media production in partnership with the BBC OS team.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | World of Secrets, Season 2, investigates allegations surrounding one of the most powerful religious figures of the 21st century, TB Joshua. |
| 0:10.0 | Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:14.0 | Hello, I'm James Reynolds. |
| 0:16.0 | Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:19.0 | In BBC OS conversations, we bring people together to share their experiences and this |
| 0:24.4 | time conversations on life in Yemen. With concerns around further |
| 0:30.3 | instability in the Middle East as well as international trade. |
| 0:34.0 | Yemen is in focus for so many around the world. |
| 0:37.3 | It's a country that has been divided by civil war. |
| 0:40.8 | We've brought Yemenis together to talk about their shared home, including those who are forced to leave. |
| 0:46.4 | I would love to see my families and relatives. That's my priority. |
| 0:50.5 | I imagine Yemen before the nightmare, you know, before the war. It was a beautiful place and I wished for it to go back to how it was before. |
| 1:00.0 | If you look up Yemen on a map map you might notice it's drawn as a single country |
| 1:06.3 | but the reality on the ground is very different. Yemen's eight-year-long civil war |
| 1:11.7 | began in 2014. |
| 1:13.4 | As a result, the country is split between the internationally recognized governments |
| 1:17.9 | based in the southern port of Aden |
| 1:19.5 | and the north of the country, including the capital Sana'a, |
| 1:22.4 | which is controlled by the Huthies, the armed political and religious group. |
| 1:27.1 | The Huthies say they are currently fighting for Palestinians |
| 1:30.9 | and so they've been attacking ships connected with Israel in the red |
| 1:34.8 | seat though not every ship hit has that connection. Those attacks meanwhile have |
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