United Nations Warns Yemen on Brink of Famine
Stop U.S. / Saudi War on Yemen!
By Azza Rojbi
“More than 1,000 days of families driven from their homes by brutal violence. 1,000 days without enough food to eat and safe water to drink. 1,000 days of bombed hospitals and damaged schools. 1,000 days of children recruited to fight. 1,000 days of disease and death … of unimaginable human suffering.” “The conflict in Yemen has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world – a crisis which has engulfed the entire country.” From a joint statement published on December 29, 2017 by the directors of three UN agencies, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP). Humanitarian crisis from bad to worst!
This horrendous war against the people of Yemen started on March 2015, by Saudi Arabia and its allies’ coalition with the full backing of the United States. The Saudi government used the pretext of internal conflicts in the country to intervene militarily and claimed wanting to bring legitimacy and stability back to Yemen by reinstating the deposed unpopular former
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Photos counter-clockwise from top: Yemeni man covered in blood after building destroyed by Saudi airstrikes, Sanaa, Yemen, Aug. 25,2017. Child recovering from injuries caused by U.S/Saudi War on Yemen. Displaced Yemeni, Razaz Ali, sits with four of his sons outside a tent at the Dharwan settlement, Yemen.
president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, who is still hiding in his master’s palaces in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. So now more than 1000 days of war and bombing, what did the Saudi-led coalition achieve in Yemen? Where is the peace and stability the Saudi government promised the Yemeni people?
According to the UN report titled “Yemen: 2018 Humanitarian Needs Overview”, “an estimated 22.2 million people in Yemen need some kind of humanitarian or protection assistance, including 11.3 million who are in acute need – an increase of more than one million people in acute need since June 2017.”
This UN report highlight the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen that continues worsening. Millions of Yemenis are facing daily war, displacement, disease and famine. On December 22, 2017 the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported that “the total number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen has crossed one million”. The lack of access to clean drinking water,
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proper sanitation and access to medical clinics has aggravated the spread of this epidemic.
In addition to the Cholera epidemic, Yemen is now facing a rapidly spreading diphtheria outbreak. According to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) “Diphtheria is a contagious and potentially fatal bacterial infection […] It can be prevented through vaccination, but it can be challenging to treat—in part because it is often unfamiliar to health workers. Before this year, the last diphtheria case in Yemen was recorded in 1992, and the last outbreak was in 1982.” The brutal Saudi-led bombing campaign coupled with the land, sea and areal blocked imposed on Yemen, are bringing back forgotten diseases that were thought to be eradicated but that are now taking the life of Yemenis specially malnourished children who are already so vulnerable. In addition to the destruction of human life, the Saudi-led coalition has bombarded and ruined homes, schools, mosques, hospitals, markets, water and