AAM DISPATCH

The Foreign Ministry building sits on a wide-open plot of land adjacent to to major roads in Sana’a. The building looks fairly modern, and there is a security entrance off one of the main roads. There is a small hut with one guard, and the typical rolling rail of 6” metal spikes across the driveway.

We pull up to the outer perimeter entrance and the driver tells the guard I’m an American journalist. The man looks in the car and waves us in without any inspection of the vehicle, my back, the trunk, etc. We pull up to the second gate, which is at a fence that surrounds the building complex, and the driver again tells the guard I’m an American journalist. The guard tells the driver to park the car and I get out. I walk to the gate and a man asks to look in my bag. I open it, and he asks a question I can’t quite understand. He then says “TV?” I say, “radio.” With that he waves me in and points to the building.

It’s not clear whether I should enter the side by the gate or walk around to the front. I walk in the side and expect to walk through a security check and then announce myself.
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Sean Carberry Ministry of Foreign Affairs, security, Yemen

Faisel al Hemyri is 28-years old. He looks like he’s closer to 40. He’s a police soldier. It’s a job he’s held since the age of 14. He drives around in patrol trucks every night, and sometimes during the day. He’s originally from a village in southern Yemen, but moved to Sana’a for his job 14 years ago. Today he lives in a small cinder block house with his wife, mother and four children – a small family by Yemeni standards. His house is in a remote village on the outskirts of Sana’a (but still within the city limits, and within the ring of security checkpoints that surround the city).

The drive to his house from downtown Sana’a takes about 30 minutes. The scenery and terrain gradually transforms from the dense urban bustle of the city center, to a gradually more industrial and sparse surrounding. Industrial should be qualified – small-scale industries like cinder block plants, construction businesses and auto repair shops. Periodic stretches of markets line the streets, and men mull about chewing qat and buying fruit and wares from vendors chewing qat.
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Sean Carberry Economy, security, Yemen