Nightmare over

They had had a two weeks' nightmare in the war-torn Yemen. Trapped amid deadly fighting, they witnessed untold miseries of people caused by clashes between the Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led Arab allied forces in the Middle East country.

The Bangladeshi expatriates in Yemen found themselves helpless amid the ongoing violence. They had been waiting to escape but did not dare come out of their houses in fear of falling in the line of fire.

“The attacks were not that severe during daytime but after dark, it was nightmare. There were continuous bombing and firing all night,” said Mohammad Arman, who used to work as a mobile service mechanic in capital, Sana.

“For about two weeks, we could hardly sleep. The fighting was escalating gradually in Sana as both sides were launching the attacks furiously. It was alarming for the residents of Sana,” he told The Daily Star at Dhaka airport.

Amran and 336 other Bangladeshis, who were evacuated from Yemen on April 12 and brought to the south Indian port city of Kochi by two Indian ships on Saturday, finally arrived home early yesterday.

Two special flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the Bangladeshis landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 4:30am and 5:15am.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam was at the airport to receive them.

“We were very scared as fighting was going on near our building,” said Arman, of Chittagong.

“We had insufficient food. For the first eight or nine days we could prepare our food. But after that we began to face shortage of food, water and gas,” Arman added.

He and 20 other Bangladeshis took shelter in a small room in a building where they spent about two weeks before they could board an Indian ship.

Farzana Akter, who had gone to Yemen with her husband from Feni nine months ago, repeatedly implored her husband to find a way home.

“I kept requesting my husband to get out of Yemen anyhow when the fighting turned severe. But it was really tough to go outside amid the fighting,” she told The Daily Star.

Like Farzana, several other returnees faced difficulties to come out of Sana as there is no Bangladesh mission in Yemen.

They could finally escape the city when the Bangladesh government formed an emergency crisis management cell with officials of its Kuwait mission in Djibouti on April 3.

The government sought help of the Indian mission, which took steps to evacuate its own citizens from Yemen by ships and air.

More than 500 Bangladeshis have been evacuated from Yemen with India's help in the last three weeks.

Of them, 363, including yesterday's 337 returned home. Another 136 Bangladeshis, who are currently in Djibouti, might land in Dhaka tomorrow.