In once flourishing Aden, Yemeni matriarch recalls British queen's visit

Kulthoom Muhammad Saeed, 80, talks to Reuters at her home about memories of the Queen Elizabeth's visit to Aden in 1954 during the period that it was a colony within the British Empire, in Aden,Yemen September 11, 2022. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Kulthoom Muhammad Saeed was 12 years old when a young Queen Elizabeth visited Aden, then one of the world's busiest fueling ports and a strategic piece of Britain's crumbling global empire.

Nearly seven decades later, Yemen's long years of war and neglect have taken a devastating toll on Aden, and the death of the queen has made Kulthoom nostalgic.