Eerie scenes in war-torn Aden, Yemen – in pictures

The mostly empty streets of Aden, Yemen’s southern port city and seat of government, are eerily quiet after three years of civil war. Violence, famine and disease have ravished the country, which was already the Arab world’s poorest before the conflict began. Aden has taken the brunt of the conflict which has pitted a Saudi-led coalition that support the government against Houthi rebels

Nariman El-Mofty/AP


  • Damage and bullet holes from the country’s civil war outside a women’s hair salon
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    Damage and bullet holes from the country’s civil war outside a women’s hair salon


  • A sign in Arabic, that reads ‘danger, mines’, on the highway from Abyan to Aden
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    A sign in Arabic that reads, ‘danger mines, danger mines’ on the highway from Abyan to Aden


  • Sand drifting over an empty highway from Abyan to Aden
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    Sand drifting over an empty highway from Abyan to Aden


  • Young men play pool on a street in front of damaged buildings. Many buildings are hollowed-out versions of their former selves, a testament to lives and hopes once lived by inhabitants who now scrape by on aid handouts and the bare minimum for survival
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    Young men play pool on a street in front of damaged buildings. Many damaged buildings are hollowed-out versions of their former selves, a testament to lives and hopes once lived by inhabitants who now scrape by on aid handouts and the bare minimum for survival


  • The damaged Mercedes Benz building. Once a peg in a thriving commercial centre that sprang up under colonial rule, the dealership sits empty and pockmarked with bullet holes. Its damaged sign stands over bay windows boarded up by people sheltering inside. With the war still raging, nothing is being rebuilt
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    The damaged Mercedes Benz building. Once a peg in a thriving commercial centre that sprang up under colonial rule, the dealership sits empty and pockmarked with bullet holes. Its damaged sign now stands over bay windows boarded up by people sheltering inside. With the war still raging, nothing is being rebuilt


  • Abdullah gets his hair cut at a barbershop. Even with a civil war in full swing, people seek some simple recreations and acts of normal life. A blow-dry at a salon costs 200 Yemeni Riyals (£0.60)
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    Abdullah gets his hair cut at a barbershop. Even with a civil war in full swing, people seek some simple recreations and acts of normal life such as this young man’s haircut and women visit salons where a blow-dry costs 200 Yemeni Riyals (£0.60)


  • War damage outside the Lelte boutique for wedding dresses. Despite the country’s ongoing war, such shops are open late into the night. ‘Women come in and look at some dresses, but they are expensive for people now, so it’s hard to sell,’ said an assistant
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    A war damage outside Lelte boutique for wedding dresses. Despite the country’s ongoing war, wedding boutiques are open late into the night. ‘Women come in and look at some dresses, but they are expensive for people now, so it’s hard to sell,’ said one clerk


  • A damaged clock by the roadside, where time stands still
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    A damaged clock by the roadside where time stands still


  • A ruined theme park
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    A damaged theme park


  • An elderly man walks past a bombed building
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    An elderly man walks past a bombed building


  • A ship abandoned on the shore. On the beach, old pleasure venues also lie empty, broken and deserted. A shattered nightclub and a vacant children’s theme park are ghostlike reminders of the past
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    A ship wreck abandoned on the shore. On the beach, old pleasure venues also lie empty, broken and deserted due to the civil war. A shattered night club and a vacant children’s theme park are ghostlike reminders of generations past
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