Aden residents stockpile food as Houthi missiles hit Yemeni city
Yemenis in Aden are hoarding staples and planning escape routes as Houthi missile and drone strikes hit the airport, port and presidential palace.
Aden — Residents of Aden are stockpiling sugar, fuel and other staples and mapping escape routes out of the city as Houthi missile and drone strikes shatter four years of relative calm in Yemen's southern port city.
The Houthis have claimed attacks on several targets in Aden over the past month, including the international airport, military camps, the port and the presidential palace, which serves as a base for Yemen's internationally recognised government, Al Jazeera reported.
"We've started buying and stockpiling basic provisions, like sugar and other staples," Mohammed Abdul Malik, an Aden resident, told Al Jazeera, adding that he has an emergency fuel supply and a car ready to flee to Shabwa or Hadramout if state institutions collapse. "If the [Aden] port were to be struck, prices would skyrocket," he said, noting that prices in besieged Taiz have already doubled.
The economics of a renewed war are already biting. Aden's airport, currently Yemen's busiest, has seen repeated disruption, with airlines cancelling, delaying or diverting flights. Ahmed Awadh, who lives in the Khor Maksar district near the airport with 10 family members, told Al Jazeera that explosions have left children unable to sleep and that some neighbours have sent relatives to Lahj and Abyan provinces or rented homes further from the airport.
The fighting follows a Houthi offensive launched in early September that seized districts in Hodeidah and Taiz provinces, including the port of Mocha and the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, from the Saudi-backed National Resistance Forces. A government counteroffensive in early October made limited gains along the Red Sea coast, while the Houthis tightened their siege of Taiz after capturing a vital road linking it to Aden.
Critics say the government has left its temporary capital exposed. "Aden is currently the capital, housing both major and minor state institutions. Therefore, the legitimate government must protect it," Adeeb al-Shatri, a journalism professor, told Al Jazeera. The Yemeni military says it has air defence forces in the city, with reports of drones intercepted before reaching civilian areas; Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment. Al-Shatri noted most residents cannot afford to stockpile: "In Aden, people need three times their current salaries just to live a simple life."
What to watch: whether the government counteroffensive along the Red Sea coast can reopen the Taiz-Aden road, and whether further strikes on Aden's port push food prices higher — the first test of how far the city's fragile economy can bend.
Sources
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