ADEN, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Under Aden's scorching summer sun, Saleh Hamid stood beside an empty cooking gas cylinder, watching a long queue inch toward one of the few filling stations still operating in the southern Yemeni port city.
The 42-year-old had joined hundreds of residents hoping to secure a cylinder before the day's limited supply ran out. Around him, rows of empty cylinders marked places in the queue, each representing a family waiting for the fuel needed to prepare a meal.
"Sometimes we wait for 12 hours, but the gas runs out before we get our turn," Hamid told Xinhua. "Then we have to come back the next day and start all over again."
Such scenes have become increasingly common across Aden as a severe cooking gas shortage stretches into a third consecutive week, compounding prolonged electricity outages, salary disruptions, and rising living costs. For households already stretched thin, the shortage has turned a basic necessity into another daily ordeal, consuming working hours, raising expenses, and reshaping how families manage their daily lives.
Most filling stations across the city remain closed due to limited supplies, while those still receiving gas supplies often operate for only a few hours before exhausting their stocks, according to local sources. Whenever word spreads of a new delivery, residents rush to distribution points with empty cylinders, and queues quickly form.
For Ahmed Mihdhar, a 35-year-old company employee, securing cooking gas often means missing work. Waiting until the end of his shift leaves him with little chance of finding gas, forcing him to choose between his job and his family's needs.
"If I wait until I finish work, there may be nothing left," Mihdhar said.
His experience points to a broader cost of the shortage. Hours spent searching and queuing disrupt work and other responsibilities, while those who return empty-handed may have to repeat the process the following day.
Inside Aden's homes, families face a different calculation.
Some have resorted to cooking with firewood and other makeshift fuels. Others have bought ready-made meals when their cylinders run empty, adding to household expenses at a time when family budgets are already strained.
Um Zainab, a housewife, said her family spent several days buying prepared food after running out of cooking gas, but could not afford to continue, "especially when our salaries haven't been paid."
Scarce supplies have also fueled black-market sales, residents said, with cylinders offered at prices substantially higher than official rates.
Akram Hadi, a researcher at the Faculty of Economic and Political Sciences at Aden University, said that supply disruptions triggered the shortage, but poor distribution management deepened it.
"Overlapping responsibilities, disagreements among authorities, and weak oversight had hindered an effective response," Hadi noted.
The cooking gas shortage compounds Aden's wider struggles. As the temporary seat of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, the city is grappling with persistent electricity blackouts, salary disruptions, and rising prices, all of which have squeezed household budgets.
For families, these pressures feed into one another. Money spent on costly meals or inflated gas prices eats into budgets already stretched by food, transportation, and other essentials.
These struggles are rooted in over a decade of conflict. The country has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthi group seized the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government.
Although large-scale fighting has eased in recent years, Yemen remains divided, and years of conflict have weakened infrastructure, public services, and household purchasing power. For locals, the cooking gas shortage is merely the latest hardship in a decade marked by one struggle after another.
Back outside the filling station, Hamid remains beside his empty cylinder as the queue slowly moves forward. Whether he will make it home with a cylinder of cooking gas, no one knows. ■
