Yemen Eco | Report
Roads that were closed by war in Taiz governorate represent one of the most important issues in the humanitarian livelihood and economic file, and the first source for the suffering of the people of the governorate and the travelers across it, and that necessitates reconciliation between the parties on formulation includes the opening of these roads, and ending the suffering for the citizens, and that is what Sana’a government has announced recently of presenting an initiative for reaching it, but the Yemeni government refused it, what would the initiative achieve if it was accepted?
The initiative which was announced by the head of the Supreme Political Council Mahdi Almshat recently, during his presence in Taiz, it is briefed that” Ending the military conflict throughout the governorate’s fronts, and formation of local joint administration” averting the governorate the war permanently, the refusal of the Yemeni government came through a statement by Taiz governor Nabil Shamsan, as it’s “showing off and ambiguous” and it “seeks to the failure of Saudi attempts for achieving peace in Yemen” and it is a response did not deal with contents of the initiative sufficiently, but he focused more on that there are hidden goals behind it.
But observers and analysts spoke to “Yemen Eco” they see that Sana’a government’s initiative -theoretically – it would change a lot of the governorate’s situation, ending the war and forming a joint administration from all parties will shadow positively and immediately on all aspects of the humanitarian situation in the governorate, especially, with regards the roads’ issues, ending the conflict will end the cycle of the main reasons for their closure.
“Yemen Eco” website, is trying here to present a profile for the reality of Taiz governorate in case a joint administration is formed and its social and community impacts, particularly, what relates to ending the suffering of the people of the governorate, in traveling for hundreds of hours, due to the closure of roads which may be shortened to few hours if the joint administration was accepted.
The war in the governorate caused the closure of four main roads from and to the city that is controlled by the Yemeni government, its most important one is the road of the palace roundabout (Eastern Access) which connects the city with Alhuban area and Ebb, Dahmer, Sana’a, Aden, and Lahaj governorates, because this road transferred to main adjacent line during the confrontations, in case of ending the conflict in the governorate, and forming a joint administration as Sana’a government’s initiative stipulates, the opening of this road would not be difficult one because all considerations that to keep it closed might be finished completely.
This road will avail for the citizens and travelers moving from and to Taiz city within 10 to 15 minutes’ duration only, instead of the current long way and duration estimated between 8 to 10 hours, that the alternative road requires which connects Huban area and the west of the city through a long journey passes through Damnat Khader ( (southwest) of Taiz, and Sailat Alseram. Then Aalqrood mountains and then Najid Quaaism area, the main cross point towards Aldabab line, reaching the western area of Taiz.
The second road which the war caused its closure, is Usaferah road, to the sixty-meter road (the northern cross point). that connects Taiz city with Huban area that is controlled by Sana’a government and from it to the rest of the provinces, also reach Sharab and Mehklaf as well. The closure of this led to force the citizens to navigate across long and tiring road passes through Jabal Habashi to Samai then Almkatarah and Alakrood mountains, in order to have and access Huban, which is a journey that lasts 18 hours
Regarding this conflict and the formation of a joint administration to the governorate, that leads immediately to the opening of this road which takes only more than 15 minutes.
Similarly, that ending this conflict and the formation of a joint administration in the governorate, that will open another road was closed by the war which is “Alrawdah –Aljuhaim road that connects between the city and Huban area, where the citizens were forced to replace it with “Alaqrood “the long road that navigation in it takes about 8 hours to reach Alkabaita road that leads to Lahj.
In case of ending the conflict in the governorate, this long trip would be reduced to about 695 meters only according to Google Maps show that “Yemen Eco” was briefed during a period of not more than 15 minutes only.
While the citizens are forced now to spend (8-10 ) hours to navigate between the city of Taiz and the western districts and Hodeida governorate, due to an alternative road passes through Albarah, Jabal Habashi and Alakrood that ending the conflict in the governorate would reduce this period to half an hour only, through opening Bair Basha and ghee and soap factory road “the western cross main point” which the war caused its closure.
The benefits incurred by ending the conflict in the governorate and forming a joint administration are not limited to reducing the movement duration from and to the city, because the process of movement through alternative routes also includes other difficulties faced by citizens and travelers, such as subjection to kidnapping, paying excessive royalties for the security and military checkpoints, in addition to the goods and commodities access difficulties and the inflation of their prices as a result of transportation cost, and those are things that would open roads and end the conflict in the governorate, putting an end to it once and for all.
According to the above, ending the conflict in Taiz governorate and agreeing on a joint administration will generally lead to ending the bulk of the humanitarian crisis that the governorate is experiencing.