With Marwan Yousef Killed Yemen is The Most Dangerous Place For Journalists

ALBAWABA - A Yemeni journalist was killed in action as he was covering the war between the Coalition-led partners and the Houthis in the Hejja Province in the north-west of the country. 

The social media is covering the latest death of Marwan Yousef who is a reporter in the Information Center of the Yemeni army fighting the Houthis in a latest episode of a bloody and deadly war.

He died while covering the on-going battles in Harad city of the Hejja province. Anadolu news put it this way: The  journalist was killed late Sunday while covering clashes between Yemeni government forces and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in northwestern Yemen.

His death was confirmed by Yemen's Deputy Minister of Information Abdul Basit al-Qaidi on Twitter, conveying his condolences to the family of the deceased.

The Yemeni army announced Saturday the Harad district was surrounded by army forces as part of the clashes with the Houthis, the Turkish based news agency said, adding Harad is one of the most strategic districts in Yemen due to its location and is controlled by the Houthis despite the fact the district is also home to a vital land port operated by Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Houthis since 2015, one year after the Houthis overran much of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa Anadolu points out and this seven-year conflict has created one of the world's worst man-made humanitarian crises, with nearly 80% of the country, or about 30 million people, in need of humanitarian assistance and protection. More than 13 million people in Yemen are in danger of starvation, according to UN estimates.

More than 300 Yemeni journalists have been killed in the war since 2015. According to the Yemeni Media Union 337 members of the press in the country have died covering the war.  The union, in a statement released on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day in early May 2021,  announced 337 Yemeni journalists, including 47 citizen journalists and 290 war correspondents, were killed in the course of Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on their homes and workplaces. 

There has been much attacks on Yemeni journalists covering the war. Last November pregnant Yemeni journalist Rasha Al-Harazi was killed in a car explosion. She was driving with her husband Mahomoud Ameen Al Atmy at the time. Al Atmy, a fellow journalist who survived the explosion was believed to be the result of an explosive device that was attached to their car. 

Some social media tweets say she was going on her way to hospital. "An explosive device planted in the car of journalist Mahmoud al-Atmi blew up as he was taking his wife....to hospital to deliver her baby," the source from government forces told AFP.