Inside the ‘kill box’: The Yemenis who stayed behind in Houthi-held Mocha

Nabil watched from his balcony as a column of displaced people passed by at dawn on September 10, hours before Houthi forces entered Mocha, a Yemeni city on the Red Sea.“People were terrified. There was fear everywhere,” he said.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Yemen’s war disrupts roads and ports, deepening humanitarian crisislist 2 of 4‘We no longer eat three meals’: Yemen’s displaced face daily fight for foodlist 3 of 4Yemen’s army says targets Houthis in hundreds of strikes, killing 700list 4 of 4A Yemeni family spends a week on the road fleeing another Houthi offensiveend of listNabil, a daily wage labourer in his 40s, did not join them. He still lives in Yakhtul, a village north of Mocha, alongside relatives, none of whom has left their homes.“Displacement is humiliation and homelessness,” he said. “I haven’t done anything wrong, so I have nothing to be afraid of, and I don’t belong to any side.”Weeks after the Houthis took Mocha from forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognised government, thousands of civilians remain in the district. The Houthis – an armed group that has controlled much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, since September 201...