Sanaa diary: An explosion like an earthquake

The moment the missile base at Faj Attan exploded last week was terrifying.

The shelling and bombardment that preceded it was usual. I was in my apartment getting ready to go out, when the room started shaking, like an earthquake. Frozen, I was genuinely worried that the building would collapse.

Then the explosion – shattering all the windows and leaving broken glass in its wake.

It took me a couple of minutes to realise what had happened. I took my mobile phone to answer calls and checked in with my family and friends. The most painful call was the one I made to my sister. While speaking to her I could hear my two-year-old nephew crying out in fear and screaming “Mama, Mama,” his voice is still resonating in my head as each shell goes off.

The explosion was followed by the sound of ambulances. The bodies of the people and the injured were moved to many hospitals that have struggled to treat patients with limited resources, a lack of power and the petrol crisis that has gripped the country since the military campaign started.

The power and fuel crisis affects our daily lives too, our suffering increased as the two internal and external aggressions continue to destroy our country. For over a week we have had no power, and, like the majority of people, it becomes a daily struggle to charge all of my electronic equipment so that I can stay connected with the world. Since this long and continuous electricity blackout I have not taken a shower, and I am trying to use water as economically and strictly as possible so as to save it for the coming days.

In Aden, people live in misery facing the aggression from other Yemeni forces from the ground, and the foreign aggression from the sky. I called my friend there, who lived in Aden's Khormaksar neighbourhood. He told me that his house has now been destroyed, and that he has had to move. I was speechless. Every day I try and imagine the damage to Aden's social fabric caused by the Saleh and Houthi militias attacking the city now, and since the 1994 civil war. Can it be healed in the future? I am doubtful.

Last week, the Saudi-led coalition announced that 'Operation Decisive Storm' was over. I listened to the spokesman, but it was clear that this is only the end of one phase, and the beginning of a new one, one where Yemenis continue to wonder how much more their lives will be destroyed. Internally, the aggressors are still in a fighting mood and Saleh and the Houthi militias have not suspended their operations in the south.

Yemenis do not demand much – just to live in peace without internal or external aggression. Is that a lot to ask for?