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Wednesday, April 24, 2024 0:31 GMT
Heavy rains began Monday evening and continued overnight, causing dangerously high levels in some areas of Sanaa, though there were no reports of casualties. The cleanup began in Yemen's rebel-held capital of Sanaa on Tuesday after floodwaters swept through parts of the city, overturning cars and damaging shops and market stalls. Sanaa, in the country's mountainous north, is prone to flashfloods.The floods can wreak havoc on the country's infrastructure, which is already damaged by more than five years of civil war between the Houthi rebels, in the country's north, and the internationally recognized government based in the south. On Tuesday, shopkeepers and market stall owners came out to survey the damage and try to clean up.Nabil al-Wasabi, a stall owner, lost everything. The flood could also mean dangers for the country's sanitation system, which is already minimal. Yemen has had one of the world's largest Cholera outbreaks in recent memory and health officials have dreaded the coronavirus' eventual appearance in the country.The damaged marketplace's crowds show how little equipped the country, the Arab world's poorest, could be if the new coronavirus spreads there. Repeated bombings and ground fighting over five years of war have destroyed or closed more than half its health facilities. Deep poverty, dire water shortages and a lack of adequate sanitation have made the country a breeding ground for disease.