Yemeni shooter Yasmine Al-Raimi is training for the Paris Olympics, one of the biggest competitions of her life. While her rivals prepare on purpose-built ranges at high-tech shooting centres, the markswoman from conflict-torn, impoverished Yemen uses a makeshift range in an empty sports hall in Sanaa.
However, Yasmine is no stranger to makeshift facilities, a fact of life in divided Yemen, which has been engulfed by conflict since the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014. At times, with constant power cuts and nowhere else to train, she was reduced to training on the roof of her house.
But recent months have been taut, with the capital city under sporadic fire from US and UK forces who are retaliating the Houthis' drone-and-missile campaign against Red Sea shipping, which they say is in solidarity with Palestinians during Israel's relentless and ongoing war on Gaza.
After finishing second-last at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Yasmine competed at the 2022 World Championships in Cairo and the Asian Championships earlier this year. In Paris, she will be the only woman in Yemen's four-strong team which also includes a swimmer, a sprinter, and a judoka.
