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'We have nothing': Displaced mothers in Yemen's Taiz collect plastic to survive

Read the original at The Straits Times ↗
Cite

The Straits Times. (2026, November 6). 'We have nothing': Displaced mothers in Yemen's Taiz collect plastic to survive. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/we-have-nothing-displaced-mothers-in-yemens-taiz-collect-plastic-to-survive

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

The Straits Times · collected 2026-11-06 · by The Straits Times

Quick Summary

In Taiz, Yemen, two displaced single mothers are barely surviving by collecting and selling plastic bottles after fleeing their village due to fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels. The city hosts around half of the 300,000 internally displaced people in Yemen, with ongoing conflict preventing aid from entering and civilians from leaving. Fatima Abdullah Qassem and Intizar Ahmed Saeed live in a damaged building without proper shelter or supplies, highlighting the severe economic hardship they face as they struggle to feed their children on minimal earnings.
Written by AI on 2026-11-06, from this article's own text only.

AI analysis

Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.
No political leaning scored for article 134221 · logged 2026-11-06

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 7% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
The Straits Times
Hedges 3 of 15 claims Outlet record 66/100
“The articles discuss different aspects of the humanitarian crisis in Taiz: one focuses on displaced mothers collecting plastic to survive, while the other reports on a UN agency's warning about pregnant women at risk due to healthcare access issues.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
15
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
7%
1 of 15 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
The Straits Times's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
unclustered
not grouped into a story yet
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-06 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Straits Times · 4567 article(s) · 5 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 5 correction(s)

Who wrote this

The Straits Times
3028 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
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Also by The Straits Times
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 3028 articles by The Straits Times →

Topics

Iran Saudi Taiz Yemen Yemeni

Subjects

Taiz GPE · 5× Yemen GPE · 3× Saeed PERSON · 2× Fatima Abdullah Qassem PERSON · 1× Houthis NORP · 1× Iran GPE · 1× Qassem PERSON · 1× Saudi NORP · 1× Yemeni NORP · 1× al-Sayahi GPE · 1×

Narrative

Fatima Abdullah Qassem said the families fled on foot in the middle of the night when fighting reached their village of al-Sayahi in the al-Dhabab area west of Taiz.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-06
2026-11-06 · The Straits Times
'We have nothing': Displaced mothers in Yemen's Taiz collect plastic to survive · assertive framing

Claims (15 extracted, 1 hedged)

'We have nothing': Displaced mothers in Yemen's Taiz collect plastic to survive TAIZ, Yemen, Nov 6 - Two single mothers who fled their village three weeks ago are struggling to keep their children fed and warm in the besieged Yemeni city of Taiz, where they live in a damaged building and sell plastic bottles to get by. Taiz hosts about half of the 300,000 people displaced across Yemen by the latest fighting, according to the UN. uncertain
Taiz → have → UN
The city has been largely isolated since October 3, following an escalation in clashes between the Saudi-backed government and the Iran-aligned Houthis. asserted
city → isolate → government
The fighting has prevented humanitarian supplies from entering and civilians from leaving. asserted
fighting → prevent → supplies
Fatima Abdullah Qassem said the families fled on foot in the middle of the night when fighting reached their village of al-Sayahi in the al-Dhabab area west of Taiz. asserted
fighting → say → Taiz
The family spent two days sleeping on the street because the damaged building they are currently living in was so dirty, she said. asserted
she → spend → street
"The building is open, see, it's open with tarpaulins set up. asserted
it → see → tarpaulins
We put up tarpaulins, and it's freezing. asserted
it → put → tarpaulins
We have no blankets, we have nothing, I swear to God," she says, gesturing to their makeshift living space. asserted
she → have → space
Qassem, a mother of eight who is separated from her husband, lost one of her sons in a landmine explosion in 2017. asserted
who → separate → 2017
She and another mother, Intizar Ahmed Saeed, used to sell vegetables but have now turned to collecting and selling plastic bottles to support their children. asserted
She → use → children
Saeed, a widow and mother of seven, said the money she can scratch from this is not enough to even feed her children. asserted
she → say → children
I tell you, I work for 1,500 (rials, or $0.96) and it is not enough. asserted
it → tell → 1,500
I go begging for potatoes, tomatoes, pepper... asserted
I → go → potatoes
I have girls, all of them inside, where do I take them? asserted
I → have → them
The man of the house (referring to her son) is 15 years old, and these days there's no work," Saeed said. asserted
Saeed → refer → son
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