Yemen journalist killed while covering Al-Bayda clashes

By Murad al-Arifi

SANAA

A bureau chief for Yemen’s official SABA news agency was killed in the central Al-Bayda province while covering fighting between the Yemeni army and Houthi rebels, a local military source said Thursday.

The source, who asked not to be named as he lacked authorization to speak to the media, said that Ahmed al-Hamzi -- SABA’s director in Al-Bayda -- had been killed by a Houthi artillery barrage.

A colleague of al-Hamzi was also killed in the shelling, the source added.

In July, al-Hamzi sustained moderate injuries after having been shot by Houthi fighters while covering clashes in Al-Bayda’s Horan district.

Al-Hamzi's death comes only two weeks after another Yemeni journalist, Ahmed al-Musabi, was killed while covering fighting in the province’s Malgam district.

Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by conflict since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated the following year when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a wide-ranging air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains in Yemen.

The violence has devastated the country’s infrastructure, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.