Four generations of Ayman Alameer's family have lived in a large burnt-brick house in this capital's ancient Old City. He says the house dates back 500 years and in recent times has survived civil war, airstrikes and economic blockade.

It was nature, though, that delivered the catastrophic blow. This month, torrential rains and flash floods engulfed the Sanaa’s Old City, damaging more than 100 homes, many centuries old.

As he surveyed his partially destroyed house, Alameer could not hide his anguish. “The war, the airstrikes and the siege have caused a lot of destruction here, and now the heavy rains have added insult to injury,” said Alameer, a 27-year-old tax authority employee. “The city cannot hold on much longer.”

In its sixth year of war, Yemen’s fragile cultural heritage was already under threat. The Old City, home to stunning gingerbread-colored houses with white symmetrical patterns, is one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited human settlements, dating back more than 2,500 years. It is also a UNESCO-protected heritage site, added to the United Nations list in 2015 when the escalating civil war threatened to destroy or damage the ancient quarter.

Today, Yemeni authorities say the rain and floods have left 111 homes partially or completely destroyed and hundreds of families either seeking shelter elsewhere or living under the threat that their homes could collapse further over their heads.

The destruction in Sanaa is the result of erratic weather has led to flooding this year in many areas of Yemen, deepening the misery of a nation already in the grips of a civil war, a severe humanitarian crisis and the coronavirus epidemic. At least 170 people across the country have died because of flooding, more than 7,000 have been displaced, and dozens of shelters and public buildings have been destroyed, according to local authorities and aid agencies.