Médecins Sans Frontières - Yemen – Evacuated from the north (ENG)

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF144284

Date taken / Date Recorded 01/04/2015 12:00 AM

Country Yemen

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Armelle Loiseau

Copyright MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) Internal Use Only

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

Video format h264 (Constrained Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 1m43s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 102.39 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist (A voice from the field) Spoken in French, subtitled in English
Yemen
As the conflict intensifies, MSF has had to evacuate some of its international teams.
Christophe Garnier, logistician, has recently returned from Khamer in the north of Yemen.
I arrived in Yemen at the beginning of September. It was an unstable country in need of medical aid but Khamer was safe, we could walk around. The Houthis were gaining ground the whole time, but you could do pretty much what you liked, it wasn’t really that tense, well, not in Khamer. But then, everything changed, and overnight it became an unsafe country. So then you’re asked to leave, there’s no choice. It’s an emergency evacuation and, even if you knew it could happen, you don’t want it to. And you feel… it’s not a nightmare, but it’s surreal. And then you leave, you take off without having time to say goodbye, or even to phone just one person, and you leave your friends behind you. Because they do become friends, it’s more than just an employee/boss or work thing and then you leave them behind in a total mess and off you go. It’s all very well, you’re torn up, you cry your tears, but you’re safe and they aren’t and there’s nothing you can do about it. … And it’s not right… Well it is, because you won’t be able to help them from your grave, but it really cuts you up.