War, poverty force Yemeni man to live in a tree

– Yemeni Ahmed Houbeichi is not acting out some childhood fantasy when he peers down on the street below from his treehouse. War and poverty have forced him to seek out such a lofty shelter.

Wearing a red shirt, white turban and a loincloth, he recounted how he lost everything.

A few months ago, he ran a small grocery store, “but the prices went up and the debts accumulated”, he said.

He would sell items on credit, but customers could not pay him back when the local currency depreciated.

Indebted, bankrupt and unable to pay the rent for his shop, where he also lived, Houbeichi, 29, found himself homeless in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.

A four-year war between the Iran-backed Huthi rebels and the government, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, has resulted in severe food shortages in a country already considered the poorest in the Arab world.

“I was late on the rent by only one month, which made the owner angry,” he said. “He threw my stuff on to the street. I felt ashamed, everybody was watching as if I was an insane person.”

It was then he hit on the idea of living in a weeping fig growing on Street 30 in rebel-held Sana’a.

His new home has a door made of left-over wood from his old shop, while sheets and blankets draped between the branches provide both a makeshift roof and a soft platform on which to perch.

There are a couple of pillows, and bags hold his few possessions. He easily clambers up and down.

“It’s better than being on the street, and no one comes asking for rent,” said Houbeichi wryly.

A small solar panel provides electricity and the little money he makes monitoring children playing at a foosball table is just enough for food, “for one meal a day.”

More than 22 million Yemenis – three quarters of the population – are in need of food aid.

According to the International Monetary Fund, Yemen’s economy is expected to contract by 2.6% in 2018, while inflation has been projected at 42% – inevitably leading to higher unemployment rates.

Nearly 10 000 people have been killed and more than 56 000 injured since 2015, resulting in what the UN has called the worst humanitarian crisis. – AFP

AFP Picture: HOME SWEET HOME. Ahmed Houbeichi poses for a picture outside his treehouse, built on a big tree in the middle of a public street in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a. The young Yemeni man lost his shop and, with it, his home because of the war. He started sleeping rough, until he found a big tree in the middle of a street and decided to build his own house in its branches.