Tens of thousands of Yemenis and citizens of Arab States living in Yemen have gathered on March 26 at Bab Al-Yemen Square in Sanaa and several other provinces under the control of Ansar Allah to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the National Day of Resilience in the face of US-backed Saudi aggression against Yemen.

Ahmed Hussein, a Syrian refugee from Damascus living in Yemen since 2009, walked on his legs for half an hour to attend the Bab Al-Yemen Square rally to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Saudi war on Yemen along with Yemenis.

“I am observing this occasion because of its importance, even though yesterday Yemenis set fire at Saudi oil facilities in Jeddah,” Hussein told Al Mayadeen English while sitting on a sidewalk off Bab Al-Yemen of the Old City of Sanaa.

“Saudis have the money, but the time has proven that money can not protect the kingdom from Yemeni strikes,” Hussein said, accusing the Saudis of committing war crimes by bombing civilian populations including women and children at their homes. 

Yemen’s armed forces launched Friday retaliatory attacks targeting vital infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, including Aramco facilities in Jeddah, where Saudi authorities failed to distinguish the fire in the facility where the fire continued until early hours on Saturday. “I hope Ansar Allah can increase such attacks, and Yemen will win, God willing,” said Hussein.

During early hours on Saturday, the Saudi coalition launched airstrikes on the capital Sanaa, targeting two houses for families of the bodyguards of the General Insurance and Pensions Authority. “Eight people were martyred and four others were injured, including children and women,” the authority said in a statement.

Hussein, the Syrian refugee, accused Saudi Arabia of primarily destroying Yemen, Syria, and other Arab countries like Iraq and Libya. “I advise Saudi Arabia not to destroy Yemen because this is not in its interest,” he noted.

Asked what words he would love to send to the US President Joe Biden, who promised to end the war on Yemen, Hussein said “Biden is a volatile man like the Chameleons. Instead of ending the war, Biden along with the Saudis have been imposing an unprecedented blockade on fuel ships by preventing them from entering Hodeidah port.”

“Biden must fulfill his promise to end the war by lifting the siege, stopping the aggression, and allowing Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue with no foreign intervention,” Hussein explained. 

A new report for the United Nations in 2021 has projected that the death toll of the Saudi war will reach 377,000 people by the end of that year.

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Najib Fare’a, a Somali refugee based in Sanaa, said he is “attending the rally as an Arab citizen to prove to the Saudi coalition that it is not an Arab coalition as it calls itself, because if it was an Arab, it would not have attacked Yemen, which is the origin of the Arabs.”

“This coalition is an American coalition and the seven years have proved that,” said Najib. “I -as an Arab citizen- do not accept this aggression against a fraternal Arab State like Yemen.”

Najib sent the Saudi coalition a message saying that “Yemeni people can never be defeated, and the word ‘defeat’ isn’t in their dictionary.” 

“Yemen is known as a graveyard of invaders and Saudis should ask the Turks who invaded Yemen decades ago how they were buried in Yemen," Najib told Al Mayadeen English while pointing his hand to the nearby Turkish Memorial Cemetery near Bab Al-Yemen Square, a burial ground of Ottoman soldiers killed in Sanaa, that was attacked by angry citizens last weeks in condemnation of Turkey welcoming of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

“The Saudi coalition should apologize to the Yemenis and send its warplanes to target the Zionists who are occupying the first qibla of Muslims, Al-Aqsa Mosque,” said Najib.

'Lean years'

Nasser Saleh Abdul-Jabbar, 63, from Yafa’a District of the Lahij Governorate that is under the occupation of the Saudi-UAE coalition, attended the Square to show the unity of Yemen and to warn Yemenis in the southern provinces from the Saudi and UAE secessionist agendas.

“I am here to express my rejection of the Saudi occupation, siege, and bombing of Yemen,” Abdul-Jabbar said, pointing out that Ansar Allah needs immediately to take control of southern provinces including Lahj Governorate because the coalition is supporting separatists to divide Yemen into many states.

After clashes with Hadi forces, the secessionist UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) took control of Aden province in 2019 and other southern provinces, including Lahj. In 2020, STC declared autonomous rule in the provinces controlled by the council militias.

Abdul-Jabbar sent a message to the UAE-backed separatists in south Yemen saying, “Don’t be mercenaries of Saudis and UAE. Be patriots. No foreign state wants good for us but wants to divide Yemen into small states so Yemen can be easy pickings for them to swallow. United we stand, divided we fall”.

Asked how the seven years of the war passed, Abdul-Jabbar said, “They were seven LEAN years,” urging the Saudi coalition to “leave Yemen alone. Yemen is a sovereign state.”

'We are going to invade you in retaliation'

Mohammed Abdo attended the rally along with his 18-year-old Ahmed from Al-Hymah district of Sanaa Governorate. Abdo’s son Ahmed is fighting the Saudi-backed militias in Al-Balaq Mountain of Marib Province and returned to Sanaa one week ago to visit his family.

“My son Ahmed is on a family visit for one week and will return to the frontline in Marib soon,” 47-year-old Abdo explained while sitting with his son Ahmed under a tree at Bab Al-Yemen Square.

Abdo said the first airstrikes of the Saudi aggression against civilians and civilian infrastructure forced him to send two of his sons to the frontlines.

“My elder son Ali was martyred in the bordering frontline of Najran with Saudi Arabia in 2016. I sent him to take revenge for the Saudi killing of Yemeni children and women,” Abdo told Al Mayadeen English.

“The importance of this day lives in it is a National Day of Resilience and the day of remembering martyrs whom I promise to continue their path of defending Yemen until victory is achieved,” Abdo added.

Abdo is one of 23.7 million Yemenis out of 30 million whose lives have changed dramatically since the war began in March 2015 and need humanitarian assistance according to UNICEF, where the war has created in Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.

Abdo sent a message to the US that’s backing the Saudi war on Yemen, saying “One day, we are going to invade you in retaliation for invading us today under cover of the Saudi coalition. It's a matter of time.”