Yemeni government calls for urgent UN intervention to preserve and protect tangible heritage from flood damage

The Yemeni government called for urgent international intervention to preserve and protect archaeological areas and sites, especially in areas controlled by the Houthis, from the danger of rain and floods that have been hitting the country for months.

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Muammar Al-Eryani, said that he had sent a "sOS appeal to Her Excellency Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, and His Excellency Mr. Salah Khaled, Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for the Gulf States and Yemen, to urgently intervene to preserve and protect the archaeological sites damaged by the rains and floods that swept through a number of historical cities located in areas under the control of the terrorist Houthi militia affiliated with Iran."

Al-Eryani added in a statement on the X platform, which was followed by "Yemeni Youth Net", "Field reports confirm that a group of historical Yemeni cities were exposed to great destruction due to heavy rains and destructive floods caused by the low pressure system that hit Yemen in the past few days, the most important of which are the cities of "Sana'a and Zabid", which are listed on the World Heritage List."

Al-Eryani called on the United Nations to urgently intervene to preserve and protect these damaged areas and restore them "to ensure the preservation of this valuable human heritage for future generations, as this destruction represents a great loss to Yemeni history, culture and humanity as a whole."

The Yemeni minister pointed out that the Houthi militia coup and the wars it caused prevented the state from carrying out its duty in caring for these two cities and the rest of the archaeological sites in the areas controlled by the militia, which exacerbated the problem and caused the upper part of the northern facade of the historic Zabid Castle to collapse, as well as the impact of many historic houses in Old Sana'a by floods and became vulnerable to collapse, in addition to the collapse of one of the palaces of Old Sana'a recently, and several collapses occurred in the historic Rada'a Castle.

Material heritage is exposed to the worst conditions

For his part, our country's representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called on the international organization to take urgent action to address the effects of heavy rains on the Yemeni heritage sector.

"The World Heritage sites in Yemen, those listed on the representative list, those listed on the tentative list, and those not listed, are suffering the worst damage with the heavy rainy season in the country," Jameh said in a post on his Facebook page.

He stressed that the entire Yemeni tangible heritage sector is exposed to the worst conditions due to heavy rains and climate change.

He stated that "during the past weeks, the Yemeni mission to UNESCO contacted the international organization to inform it of the severe damage suffered by the heritage sector, and to request urgent action and emergency support to address the urgent situation."

He added, "The organization is communicating with its regional office in Doha to provide the necessary support and urgent equipment to confront the emergency," noting that the regional office has moved to provide rapid response equipment to some historic cities.

Jamil stressed that the situation is catastrophic par excellence, and requires the organization to provide more equipment to protect many buildings that are at risk of collapsing.

Emergency response

Meanwhile, the UNESCO Regional Office for Yemen and the Gulf announced the provision of emergency response equipment to local stakeholders in response to heavy rains and floods threatening World Heritage sites in Yemen.

UNESCO added that, thanks to funding provided by the European Union, it seeks with its partners (the Public Works Project and the Social Fund for Development) to preserve the safety of people and cultural heritage in Yemen.

Since last March, Yemen has been witnessing heavy rains that have increased in recent weeks, causing human losses and significant material damage, as well as damaging a number of historic cities and heritage sites.