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Once a picturesque Red Sea port, the city of Aden in government-controlled Yemen has been transformed by the massive influx of people fleeing war: electricity cuts are constant, running water scarce and the meagre public services badly overstretched.The centuries-old city has become a haven for people seeking safety and work since Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa, forcing out the sitting government.The displacement, which has more than doubled the city’s population, has put a massive strain on water and electricity services, hitting both recent arrivals and longtime residents.Meanwhile, the coastal city has attracted many of the thousands of African migrants who have landed on people-smuggling boats each month, hoping to reach the wealthy Gulf but instead getting stuck in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country.Mohammed Saeed al-Zaouri, Yemen’s minister of social affairs and labour, told AFP that 755,000 registered and an untold number of unregistered people have arrived in Aden. He put the city’s current population at around 3.5 million, more than double the 1.5 million of 20 years ago.”This number is beyond Aden’s capacity,” he added. – ‘Limited supply’ -The conflict between the rebels and a Saudi-led international coalition has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with most of Yemen’s population dependent on aid despite a truce since 2022.The seat of Yemen’s displaced government since 2014, Aden bears the unmistakable signs of conflict, with homes pockmarked by bullet holes and buildings lying in ruin. All around, roads are gridlocked by traffic, while the southern city is scattered with generators, water trucks and military checkpoints. In the crowded city, residents are worn out.Under the harsh glare of floodlights, pre-charged for use during power cuts, Mohammed grows frustrated as the latest hours-long outage cuts phone and data networks.The 37-year-old government employee admits that even before the war, the city’s services were under strain. But they have grown worse and worse, he says.”The displaced have to share with residents the limited supply of water and have put additional pressure on electricity services and the telecommunications network,” Mohammed, who only provided his first name, told AFP. In October, the capital plunged into a complete blackout for five days — the third such outage this year — due to fuel shortages.- Tent cities -To add to Aden’s woes, rents have soared. For Mohammed, the government worker, his monthly salary of about $80 is unable to cover rent. Most apartments start at $106.The shortfall has forced him to delay his marriage plans. Many of the displaced have also been priced out of rented properties, pushing thousands to live in camps on the outskirts of Aden.Among them is Abdulrahman Mohyiddin, who fled with his eight children from the coastal city of Hodeida in 2018 to escape the fighting.There, his family live in a canvas tent, where they lack access to the most basic necessities — water, electricity and beds.Experts are now warning that the city’s ability to absorb the expanding population is likely at an end. Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemen expert at Chatham House in London, said the complete collapse of services in Aden was “only a matter of time”.”The city overall is drowning in sewage, constant power cuts, and worse, poor governance,” he told AFP. – ‘Exhausted, just like us’ -Hundreds of thousands have died in fighting or knock-on effects such as malnutrition because of the war, which has left Yemen divided between Houthi and government areas.Even though fighting has eased, Aden’s economy has nosedived since 2024 following the depreciation of the local currency, the halt of oil exports and funding restrictions.Parents from three different families around the city told AFP their children rely on the packets of fortified biscuits distributed by the United Nations at schools.Around 19.5 million people — more than half of Yemen’s population — were in need of humanitarian assistance in 2025, including 4.8 million internally displaced, according to UN figures.Even Aden’s ritzier areas are coming under strain. At the entrance to the Coral Aden Hotel — which hosts diplomatic missions and political meetings — a frail police dog sits, unable even to bark.A guard checking vehicles at the hotel admitted there was no budget to provide the dog with its own food.”He is exhausted, just like us,” he told AFP. “He shares our poverty and our leftover food.”

At a cafe in a bustling Cairo neighbourhood, Liverpool games once drew wall-to-wall crowds, but with Mohamed Salah off the pitch, his Egyptian fans would now rather play cards or quietly doomscroll than watch the Reds play.Salah, one of the world’s greatest football stars, delivered an unusually sharp rebuke of manager Arne Slot after he was left on the bench for three consecutive games.Adored by fans as the “Egyptian king”, Salah told reporters he had been “thrown under the bus” by the club he has called home for seven-and-a-half years.The outburst divided Liverpool fans worldwide — but in the Cairo cafe, people knew what side they were on, and Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Inter Milan went unnoticed.”We’re upset, of course,” said Adel Samy, 40, a longtime Salah fan, who remembers the cafe overflowing with fans whenever he was playing.On Tuesday evening, only a handful of customers sat at rickety tables — some hunched over their phones, others shuffling cards, barely glancing at the screen.”He doesn’t deserve what’s happening,” Samy told AFP.Islam Hosny, 36, who helps run the family cafe, said the street outside used to be packed with “people standing on their feet more than those who sat on chairs” whenever Salah played.”The cafe would be as full as an Ahly-Zamalek derby,” he told AFP, referring to Egypt’s fiercest football rivalry. “Now because they know he’s not playing, no one comes.”At a corner table, a customer quietly asks staff to switch to another match.- ‘Time to leave’ -Since joining the Merseyside team in 2017, Salah has powered the club’s return to the top of European football, inspiring two Premiere League titles, a Champions League triumph and victories at FA Cup, League Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.With 250 goals in 420 appearances, he is Liverpool’s third-highest goalscorer of all time, and for Egyptians, the country’s greatest sporting export.But this season, Salah has struggled for form, scoring five goals in 19 appearances as Liverpool have won just five of their last 16 matches in all competitions, slipping to eighth in the Champions League with 12 points.At the cafe in the Shoubra neighbourhood of Cairo, the sense of disillusionment gripped fans.”Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi and all players go through dips,” said Mohamed Abdelaziz, 40, but they still play.Shady Hany, 18, shook his head. “How can a player like Mohamed Salah sit on the bench for so long?” he told AFP.”It is time for Salah to leave.”Slot said on Monday he had “no clue” whether Salah would play for Liverpool again.Salah, due to join Egypt for the Africa Cup of Nations after next weekend’s home match against Brighton, has around 18 months remaining on the £400,000-a-week contract he signed in April.Saudi clubs have already set their sights on Salah to land him during the winter transfer window, a Public Investment Fund (PIF) source told AFP. Saudi clubs Al-Ittihad, who had a £150-million bid rejected two years ago, and Al-Hilal are both believed to be monitoring developments while Aramco-backed Al Qadsiah is also keen.Yet, Egyptian sports pundit Hassan Khalafallah believes Salah’s motivations lie elsewhere.”If he cared that much about money, he would have accepted earlier offers from Gulf clubs,” he told AFP.”What matters to Salah is his career and his legacy.”Salah’s journey from the Nile Delta village of Nagrig to global stardom at Anfield has inspired millions.His rise is a classic underdog story — starting at Egypt’s El Mokawloon, moving to Switzerland’s Basel, enduring a tough spell at Chelsea, finding form at AS Roma and ultimately becoming one of the Premier League’s greatest players.”Salah is an Egyptian star we are all proud of,” said Hany.”Saudi Arabia is money, but Salah deserves more. He still has so much ahead of him.”

UAE-backed south Yemeni separatists have taken control of vast new areas, rattling the anti-Houthi government and threatening to further divide a country fractured by more than a decade of civil war.Yemen is already split between the Iran-backed Houthis who control much of the north and a fractious patchwork of anti-rebel groups in the internationally recognised government. The separatists of the Southern Transitional Council are part of that anti-Houthi government, but their advances have raised fears that the group might secede in an effort to revive the once independent South Yemen.- What is the STC? -Headed by Aidaros Alzubidi, the STC is a coalition of groups that want to bring back South Yemen, which existed from 1967 until its unification in 1990 with North Yemen.They now control almost all of South Yemen’s former territory.The STC has gained influence during Yemen’s civil war, which has pitted the Houthis against forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition that includes the United Arab Emirates.Close to Abu Dhabi, the separatists are part of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), the eight-member body that heads the internationally recognised government.Alzubidi is the PLC’s vice-president while Saudi-backed Rashad al-Alimi, who has heavily criticised the separatists’ advance, is its president.The STC already controlled swathes of Yemen’s south coast, including al-Mukalla, the capital of the country’s largest province Hadramawt.Last week, its forces swept inland, seizing the key city of Seiyun as well as oil fields in the mostly desert area bordering Saudi Arabia.In recent days, some local leaders in neighbouring Mahra province, which borders Oman and is a key smuggling route, also joined their alliance, the STC told AFP.- Will the STC secede? -The advance and the lack of resistance “suggests a level of coordination with at least some of the government forces,” according to Elisabeth Kendall of Cambridge University.Its speed and success are “symptomatic of PLC failures” she said.”The PLC has proven weak and divided, riddled by infighting and unable to govern effectively,” she said, warning that its future was now unclear, with fears rising that the STC might secede.A senior government official dismissed the possibility of such a move succeeding.”The declaration of a new state isn’t feasible nor viable nor possible,” he told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.”Secession isn’t possible as it requires national, regional and international consensus which doesn’t exist now,” the Yemeni official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.The STC is likely seeking to renegotiate the current power-sharing agreement within the PLC amid reports of a potential resumption of talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.The larger civil war has been effectively frozen since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022, though talks to bring it to a formal end are yet to succeed.- What do the UAE and Saudi Arabia want? -Riyadh has called for STC forces to withdraw from the newly seized territory while an Emirati official said Abu Dhabi’s position on Yemen was “in line with Saudi Arabia”.The two Gulf monarchies have one shared objective, to counter the Houthi rebels, but they have diverging long-term interests.Secession would offer the UAE “control over lucrative energy resources, ports, trade routes and strategic security locations,” Kendall said, leaving “Saudi with a bellicose Houthi-dominated state on its border”.Their territorial gains are “undoubtedly unsettling for Oman,” she added, which sees the province of Mahra as its “backyard”.strs-saa-sar/aya/dcp

The collapse of two buildings killed 22 people in the northern Moroccan city of Fes, authorities said Wednesday, in the deadliest accident of its kind in the kingdom in recent years.The Fes prosecutor’s office said in a statement the collapse occurred after 11:00 pm (2200 GMT), with women and children among the dead and sixteen people injured.Locals told AFP the buildings did not meet standards as authorities only allow two-storey buildings in that area, but the two buildings had four floors each.”I heard a loud noise around midnight, then screams,” 17-year-old Bilal El Bachir said. “It was shocking. Everyone went outside and I saw what looked like a cloud of dust, and that’s when I realised both buildings had collapsed.””I don’t know why it happened… but I’m sure the upper floors were illegal,” he added. “And these aren’t the only buildings here with illegal floors. I’m afraid this kind of incident will happen again.”The prosecutor’s office said in a statement there had been a family celebration in one of the buildings at the time of the collapse while the other was unoccupied.An investigation had been opened to “determine the real causes” of the incident, the prosecutor’s office added.By Wednesday mid-afternoon, rescue teams had completed searches for survivors, Abdelaziz Makhmakh, regional civil protection commander, told AFP.- Deadliest in a decade -“Construction in the area is almost anarchic, completely out of control,” said 20-year-old Bilal Ben Daoued. “This is supposed to be a modern neighbourhood where plots of land were offered to rehouse families who were living in slums.””It is very clear that the safety conditions are not being respected,” he added. “The investigation needs to explain this to us, and the authorities need to take responsibility.”Local authorities said preliminary reports suggested the buildings were constructed in 2006.Images from the pre-dawn scene showed first responders carrying a corpse in a grey body bag to waiting emergency vehicles, as residents gathered to watch the rescue efforts.Other workers with jackhammers and pickaxes tried to dig through the rubble, at times with the help of mechanical excavators.The official news agency MAP reported the injured were taken to Fes’s University Hospital Centre.The accident was the deadliest of its kind in a decade. In 2014, three buildings in the western city of Casablanca collapsed, killing 23 people.In 2016, there were two deadly building collapses within the span of a week.One was a home in the western city of Marrakech where two children were killed, while the other was a four-storey building that killed four people and injured two dozen more.In February of last year, five people died in the collapse of a house in Fes’s old city.Last May in Fes, nine people died when a residential building collapsed.The structure had been listed as at risk of collapse and its occupants had been ordered to evacuate, a local authority source told AFP at the time.