Thread by @ICRC

Yemen: Our colleagues still on the ground in #Hodeida share what they're seeing in a city bracing for the worst. #thread

Civilians in the city are under immense pressure.

You can feel the tension in the streets. Instead of focusing on celebrating #Eid with their families, people are stocking up on food and fuel to survive.

They fear a siege.

#Hodeida was a vibrant city. It was the main entry point for commercial goods and home to some 35,000 fishermen.

Today the streets are nearly empty.

Now the signs of poverty are everywhere.

People live in slums in the outskirts surviving on bread crumbs they find in the garbage. With the little money they do have, they buy cooking oil in plastic bags - just enough to cook 1 meal a day.

There are more and more fighters in the city.

Just outside of our office is a dirt patch where children play football casually under the sound of gunfire and airstrikes.

Hospitals cannot function properly because there is no electricity, generators are not working, or there is no fuel to run them.

Families - especially those who have young children with heart or kidney disease - come to us asking for help with their surgeries.

Many Yemenis live in dire poverty. Those who have jobs support at least 2 or 3 families. Beggars are everywhere. You see them giving what little money they have to other beggars who have even less.

Tens of thousands of people are likely to flee the city in the coming days.

The ICRC is concerned for those who were displaced already and might have to flee a second time.

//END