SANAA: Torrential rain lashed war-torn Yemen’s capital and its environs on Sunday, causing flooding and a building collapse that together killed 10 people, including four children, authorities said.

The four children were killed in the building collapse while another six people died when their car was swept away by floods in a district near Sanaa, according to officials.

Heavy rains cause devastating flooding in Yemen each year and the latest torrents have been building up over the past week.

Traffic in the city, controlled by Houthi rebels fighting the Saudi-backed government, has come to a near standstill.

A three-storey building in Sanaa’s historic district collapsed killing four children inside, a doctor at the city’s Republican Hospital said.

Floods swept away a car on a road in Dhamar governorate south of Sanaa killing the driver and five passengers, Nashwan al-Samawi, head of emergency operations in the governorate, told the Saba news agency.

Conflict since 2014 between the Iran-backed Houthis and government forces has left hundreds of thousands dead in fighting or through illness and malnutrition. There has been a truce since April.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2022