Christiaan Triebert has been investigating Bellingcat since 2015 and has hosted several Bellingcat seminars for journalists and researchers around the world. Contact via email (christiaantriebert@bellingcat.com) or Twitter (@trbrtc).
Authors: Brendan Clifford* and Christian Triebert**
The conflict in Yemen has caused tremendous suffering and exacerbated the country’s long-standing water crisis. For nearly a year, Yemen’s water supply infrastructure seems to have been deliberately attacked. This open source intelligence (OSINT) investigation investigated the latest 2016 attack on the water facility, the northern Mocha desalination plant (supposedly on January 8, 2016), and placed the attack on a wider range of illegal targets In the context, especially water infrastructure.
Impressions of Yemen's territorial control as of February 3, 2016.
Yemen has been at war with itself for nearly a year since the Houthi (officially known as Anṣār Allāh) rebels expelled the government from Sana’a. Since then, the Saudi Arabian army has come to assist the government, forming alliances with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan and Sudan. The Saudis stated that they want to restore the Yemeni government, which is an ally of the United States (US) in the fight against Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The Saudi-led coalition forces started bombing Yemen in March 2015 and conducted a large number of air strikes. The United Nations (UN) believes that 119 of them may have violated international law. The Houthi rebels have also been charged with war crimes. Both parties are active in Taiz Province.
In the second week of January 2016, photos began to circulate on Facebook and Twitter, allegedly showing the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes a desalination plant near Mocha (Arabic: المخا al-Mukhā) on the Taʿizz coast. Province.
The photos circulated on Twitter and allegedly showed the consequences of the Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the Moka desalination plant.
This article attempts to confirm the validity of the image by confirming that there is a desalination plant and it is located near Mocha, Yemen. In addition, it investigated whether the factory was operating normally before the attack, and placed the attack on a broader perspective of Yemen's water problems.
Although many reports on social media seem to refer to different dates, January 8, 2016 was the first mention of an attack on a desalination plant in this Facebook post.
Two days later, the pro-Houthi media uploaded a 79-second YouTube video on September 21. The name refers to the Houthi’s takeover in Yemen, the September 21 revolution. The description of the video talked about the serious damage to the desalination plant and said that the airstrike caused the death of several "martyrs", including a truck driver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JFSB17501w
To determine whether there is a desalination plant near Mocha and whether the video actually depicts possible plants, a quick Google search is enough to confirm: There is the Yemen Desalination Company (YCD; Arabic: الشركة اليمنية للتحلية) website, founded by HAS & Co. A private industrial company that owns and operates a desalination plant near Mocha.
The following photo on the YCD website clearly shows that it is the same facility as in the video.
Above: Photos from YCD website. Below: Still from the September 21st video.
Desalination plants are usually located along the coast, so the west coast of Yemen north and south of Mocha can be scanned, but the facility has been added as a location on the Wikimap.
An overview map of the location of the Mocha desalination plant.
The key features of confirming and mapping the YouTube video stills once again confirm that the video does indeed show a desalination plant near Mocha.
An overview of the Mocha desalination plant. The picture is from the September 21st video.
It is difficult to tell whether the desalination plant was producing water when it was destroyed. If the plant is deliberately targeted, it indicates that it is used for some purpose. The Yemen Post wrote that one person was killed and four were injured in the attack, but it did not say whether they worked in the factory. The description of the sept21.com video mentions several "martyrs".
In the video, you can see that tanks 02 and 04 are leaking. Water tank 02 has water perforated from a high place, which indicates that it was almost full when it was damaged. The water tank 04 has some small leaks and two large ruptures, which may be caused by the weight of the water squeezed out of the damaged water tank. In addition, the ground is wet, possibly due to the water stored in the water tank.
It can still be seen from the video that the liquid flows out of tank 02 and tank 04.
None of this proves that the factory was operating on January 8, 2016. But it does show that at least two of the seven main fuel tanks are full. The YCD website, satellite images and photos after the attack show that these water tanks were used to hold desalinated water for tanker trucks. The images and footage also show that just before the attack, at least tanks 02 and 04 were almost completely filled with liquid.
Using two dating sites Timetravel and Carbon Dating the Web, the last edit to the YCD website was on January 11, 2016, three days after the attack. However, we cannot find the last edit in the Arabic or English version. In any case, it shows that someone who has the ability to edit the website changed something after the attack. No matter what the user changes or adds, it indicates that someone on the YCD site is paying attention to their factory, either because it has been running before the attack, or because it stopped producing water relatively recently (as the presence of liquid implies) in the tank) .
There is a "Recent News" section on the YCD website. It has news between January and March, but does not specify which year. It is most likely in 2015, because the Yemen Times published a report in December 2014 when the factory was just a plan.
It is possible that this plant has been used up until it is destroyed. It is said that when the facility was attacked, several people were inside the facility, possibly fetching water, and at least two of the seven water tanks were filled with water.
Who was responsible for the destruction of the desalination plant north of Mocha? Most Twitter users blamed the Saudi-led coalition. The hashtag "#USAkillsyemenipeople" is also used. The United States and the United Kingdom (UK) are selling weapons to KSA and providing consultants to help improve targeting accuracy. KSA is absolutely capable of destroying the factory. It has been dropping ammunition in Yemen since March 2015.
Does KSA have any motivation to attack the factory? If the plant is still providing electricity to the disputed city of Taiz and parts of the Houthi-controlled territory, its destruction may force the Houthi to move. Alternatively, the factory may have been used by the Houthi as a shooting position, making it a military target, as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia previously claimed when targeting an alleged water supply facility in Yemen (please see the list of early The main points of the attack on water infrastructure). However, there is no conclusive evidence that the Saudi jet or any other member of the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for the attack. Although there is evidence that the damage was caused by explosives (the No. 02 and No. 04 tanks were damaged, various fragments can be seen scattered around in the video), but this cannot be attributed to the blame.
The Taʿizz coast is very barren. There are Mocha, several ports, and this easily identifiable desalination facility-as shown in this article. If the factory is used as a position to fire on Saudi or Yemeni government forces, it will make it a legitimate target. Otherwise, according to the First Protocol of the Geneva Convention that Saudi Arabia has signed since 1987, the factory is an illegal target.
The other perpetrator may be one of the various groups currently competing with the Houthis for control of Salafist in Taiz. For example, a video released in early January 2016 claimed that Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) fighters in Taiz were at war with the Houthis. The video shows that AQAP has recoilless rifles mounted on trucks, which may have caused damage to the factory. Other groups, such as the pro-Hadi security forces, Islamic fighters (Yemen Reform Council) or the People’s Resistance Committee, are also actively fighting the Houthis in Taiz. These groups may aim to destroy the factory for reasons similar to the above hypothesis: to weaken Houthi's position through thirst. On the other hand, the desalination plant also seems to provide water for the pro-Hadi control zone.
Unfortunately, the attack on the Mocha desalination plant was not an isolated incident in the Yemeni civil war. This is a non-exhaustive list of attacks on water infrastructure that occurred in 2015. We have tried to find and verify as much as possible using OSINT, but we have not been able to verify all of them.
Comparing satellite images of the Coca-Cola factory that was attacked in Sana’a in July 2015 and December 2015
At present, it is obvious that the Mocha desalination plant has been attacked, most likely to happen on January 8, 2016. But we cannot prove who destroyed this factory. No matter who did it, serious crimes were committed. Taʿizz lacks water, and the factory should be able to provide clean water for its population. Now, if it is not completely destroyed, it will be severely damaged. This can be terrible in peacetime, but considering the living conditions of Taʿizz citizens, it is disastrous.
Pictures circulating on the Internet show the aftermath of the attack on the YCD desalination plant in northern Mocha. OSINT investigation shows that this attack is likely to occur on January 8, 2016. When it was attacked, the plant might still be running, or at least there was liquid in it—most likely it was water that the citizens of Taʿizz and Mocha could use.
In the war-torn Yemen, water plays a vital role. Every day an astonishing 13 million citizens struggle to find or buy enough clean water to drink or grow food. This is about half the population of Yemen. The head of the World Health Organization delegation in Yemen stated that if the shortage cannot be reduced quickly, a large-scale epidemic may occur.
A report by the pro-government newspaper Al-Thawra estimated that about 70-80% of conflicts in rural Yemen are water-related. Yemen suffers from severe water shortages, and it is growing every year. There are many factors that cause this imbalance, including natural water shortage, increased demand, poor governance, dry climate, climate change, low efficiency, insufficient investment, improper land use (Khat), and so on. The bomb should be the least concerned.
* Brendan Clifford is a graduate student in International Relations at King's College London. He has a degree in history from Cambridge University. You can contact him via email: brendanjamesclifford@gmail.com.
** Christiaan Triebert is a graduate student at King's College London, reading Conflict, Security and Development. He holds two degrees in international relations and philosophy from the University of Groningen. You can contact him via email or Twitter: christiaan.triebert@gmail.com, @tbrtc.
Update February 2, 2019: An earlier version of this article stated that, according to multiple media reports, the air attack on the Sana’a Coca-Cola factory allegedly occurred on December 30, 2015. After careful inspection, Haley Willis found that at around 9pm local time on December 29, 2015, the strike had been reported on social media, and the article has since been updated.
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