To the Western media covering Yemen: Before repeating the description of what is happening in Yemen as a “Saudi war on Yemen,” look at this road. This is Hayjat Al-Abd, a vital road linking Taiz with the south. It is a major lifeline for the movement of people and goods and for access to food and medicine. The road was rehabilitated by the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen @SaudiDRPY and serves millions of Yemenis. This is also the very road around which the Houthis attempted to infiltrate and threaten the surrounding area yesterday, in an effort that threatens a vital lifeline on which the people of Taiz depend to reach the south and the rest of the country. However, there is a bigger problem with the way Yemen is covered by much of the Western media. We so often read descriptions such as “Saudi-backed Yemeni forces,” as though Yemenis themselves were merely instruments in a war being waged by another country as though Yemen were not a country, and as though more than 40 million people did not have a homeland, rights, interests, and an inherent right to defend their lives. Why is it that when Ukrainians defend their cities, roads, and infrastructure, it is understood as the defense of a country and its people against Russian aggression, while when Yemenis defend their cities, roads, and lives, they are reduced to the description “Saudi-backed forces”? This is not a demand that you adopt a Yemeni narrative without scrutiny. It is a demand for the bare minimum of professional and ethical consistency. Yemenis are not merely a secondary party to this war. They are the people whose country this is. They are the ones living through its consequences. They are the ones being killed and displaced, having their roads cut off, and being besieged inside their own cities. The irony is that some media narratives that claim to be about protecting civilians end up erasing Yemenis from the picture, as though their right to defend themselves must always be viewed with suspicion. We know who cuts the roads. We know who besieges cities. We know who shells residential neighborhoods. And we know who attempts to advance militarily in order to seize the roads and routes on which civilians depend. Just yesterday, a Houthi projectile struck the Wadi Al-Qadi neighborhood in Taiz, killing a child and injuring others, according to local reports. Here is another question for Western journalists who present themselves as voices for human rights, humanity, and ethics: Go to the United Nations and ask it directly: What have you done to protect your Yemeni employees who are being held by the Houthis? The United Nations itself says that 73 of its personnel remain arbitrarily detained by the Houthis, that one of its personnel died in detention, and that some of those detained are being held incommunicado. The UN also confirms that Yemeni staff members are among those being detained. Ask the UN another question: When international staff were evacuated from areas of danger, what happened to the Yemeni employees who worked for the United Nations and performed the same mission? What does an ethical evacuation mean if an employee’s right to protection is affected by their nationality? Does the life of an international employee deserve protection and evacuation, while a Yemeni employee can be left behind bars? This is not a question about nationality. It is a question of the equal value of human life, and of the moral responsibility owed to employees who work for the United Nations in service of the Yemeni people. If you, as journalists, consider yourselves defenders of human rights, these questions should be put clearly and directly to the United Nations, not left aside while the media busies itself repeating ready-made narratives about a “Saudi war on Yemen.” This road is a witness. A road rehabilitated to serve Yemenis, and then threatened by the Houthis as they attempted to establish control over its surrounding area.