Famine and disease haunt the living, but not even the dead are spared the calamities of Yemen’s two-year-old civil war. Lying beneath glass panes within the archaeology department in the capital Sanaa’s main university, the mummies might have spent their eternal slumber blissfully unaware of the otherworldly warplanes pounding their homeland. A Saudi-led military coalition has carried out thousands of air strikes in a bid to dislodge Yemen’s armed Houthi movement from the capital. But a timeless enemy, abetted by the disorder of war, threatens the mummies’ repose. “So many places have been destroyed because of this war,” lamented Ameeda Shaalan, an antiquities professor who still hopes the mummies can be saved.

Source: Dhaka Tribune May 02, 2017 11:37 UTC