Diary from a bloody war

YEMEN | The first days of March 2015 were a joyful time. “The southern port city of Aden was full of beautiful wedding parties,” writes Malka, 26, in her diary. But on 15 March, everything changed.

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A sixteen-year-old’s flight from IS group through Europe

In 2013, then 16-year-old Mosab fled from Islamic State group in Syria. He travelled alone through Europe, to Norway. Today, he lives in Oslo. He speaks Norwegian, goes to school, has two jobs – one paid and one as a volunteer – and he has learned to play the piano. But at night, he dreams that he is visited by the dead from the war.

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Rape as a weapon of war

Quiet, cheap and scarily efficient.

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The Norwegian Refugee Council is an independent humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee. We work in crises across 32 countries, where we help save lives and rebuild futures.

Latest news

Cameroon | 25. Apr 2019

Cameroon conflict produces mounting humanitarian needs

The Norwegian Refugee Council is alarmed by soaring humanitarian needs in English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

DR Congo | 24. Apr 2019

DR Congo: Imminent hunger crisis threatens Ebola-stricken North Kivu

An average of 87 per cent of displaced people are living on just over a meal a day in areas already plagued by conflict and Ebola in Congo’s North Kivu. Families affected by the deadly virus have lost access to food and are on the brink of malnutrition. Ebola cannot be eradicated if people are left starving, warns the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Yasser al Hibshi, 38, lost his house and three of his children in one of the first air raids launched by the Saudi-led coalition on the night of 26 March, 2015. He revisits his neighbourhood and speaks on the site of the ruins of his house about that fateful night.

"An air strike hit us on 26 March, 2015, in the first strikes on Yemen. It was between 2am and 2.25am, I was asleep and can’t tell you the exact time.
"Three of my children were killed: my daughter Aisha, 11, and my sons Ammar, 17, and Alaa al Deen, 14.
"I was taken by an ambulance to hospital where I stayed for more than 15 days. I was injured in my head and have two parts of my spine broken. I was in a coma and had no idea what had happened, no idea that my children had died.
"My relatives used to visit me in hospital and I thought my children were in the intensive care unit, not in the morgue. I thought they were OK. I didn’t know until I had surgery in my spine. I got out of surgery and after some five days they started giving me the news gradually. They were gradually telling me this neighbor has passed away, the other neighbour has passed away… I then asked them directly: where are my children? Then they told me that my children had passed away. Three of them. There were some 27 others from Al Muallem’s family, Al Hadrami and Al Jermuzee… all of them were my neighbours. Until this day I expect them to show up.
"I took me more than five years to save money and build this house. We lived in it for around 15 years. I had a stable life… my children, my house, my car, my shop … It’s all gone now. I used to have a grocery shop, a car, and I was coping… my kids were studying…. Today we have to pay rental fees and suffering without any source of livelihood. I have no source of income now except for the help I get from good people. Some NGOs reached out to us but now we’re not getting anything. I still have spinal injuries… If I fully recovered I would look for work, but it’s taking long. I feel a lot of pain if I had to pick up something heavy.
"We won’t die of hunger because some relatives and friends are helping us. I’ve sold my car and my shop so I can cover my children’s needs.
"Yes my children still go to school. One, Najm al Deen, is in the ninth grade. The other is living with his grandpa because he’s still traumatized. He’s staying at my father’s house to live away from the tragedy and overcome the trauma of what happened to us. He was not in the house during the air strike so we try to make him forget what happened to his siblings, because the neighbourhood would always remind him of this tragedy. We were thinking of sending my other son with him but he has not yet fully recovered… he still has shrapnel in his body. Now he’s getting treatment and continues going to school.
"I want to tell the world that we’ve had enough of the war. There is too much tragedy, so many families have been wiped out, for what? We hope that God will deliver Yemen and the Yemenis out of this situation.
We hope to get out of this crisis."

Photo: Nuha Mohammedi/NRC

Yemen | 17. Apr 2019

Yemen: More bombs and weapons will only mean more suffering and death

Statement by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Policy Director, Ole Solvang, on the US President’s veto to a bill to end military support for the war in Yemen

More news

Longreads

A sixteen-year-old’s flight from IS-group to Norway

In 2013, then 16-year-old Mosab fled from Islamic State group in Syria. He travelled alone to Norway. Today, he lives in Oslo.

Rape as a weapon of war

Quiet, cheap and scarily efficient:

Reaching more communities in crisis

Our annual report for 2017 shows how we expanded our work and were able to help more people than ever before.

Minette (38) and her family fled from Manyu and sought safety in Buea after their home was burned down. They have received some plastic sheeting and utensils from NRC, and they have built a temporary kitchen at their new place in Buea.

Photo: NRC/Tiril Skarstein

Perspective

Cameroon’s latest humanitarian crisis:

5 facts about the crisis in Cameroon

Perspective

The hard life in displacement:

Young mothers in war-torn Yemen

Perspective

We protect those displaced in the world’s most dangerous conflict areas

Opinions

Global | 22. Jan 2019

Do not criminalise aid work

Global | 10. Jan 2019

Three crises we cannot ignore in 2019

Syria | 04. Oct 2018

World powers must choose peaceful negotiations to avoid an unprecedented disaster in Idlib

More opinions

Global displacement overview

Africa

Conflict, violence and drought forces millions to flee.

The global displacement figures

Yet again, the scope of displacement and subsequent humanitarian crises is at an all-time high.

Asia

Hundreds of thousands have fled from violence in Myanmar and Afghanistan

America

Trump turns the screws on refugees.

The Middle East

Civilians bear the brunt of international power play

Europe

Refugees are meeting closed doors

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Midwife Kristin Næss Andresen and health expert Nada Hamza working together to build capacity on women's and children's health in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. (Photo: Ingrid Prestetun/NRC)

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