The suffering of civilians in Yemen is not only the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It is a crime. Nobel peace laureate Tawakkol Karman says her country is being “systematically destroyed”. Half of the country’s 22 million inhabitants are on the brink of starvation; 1.8 million children are severely malnourished. For many it is already too late. The United Nations predicts this could become the worst famine for a century. There were warnings of famine before the war broke out almost four years ago; even then, Yemen imported almost all of its food. Conditions have since deteriorated unimaginably.
The official death toll has been stuck at 10,000 for years; some estimate the true tally at over five times that number. The World Health Organization warned last month that reports of cholera were running at 10,000 cases a week. The country has become a “chaos state”: a nominal entity rather than a meaningful one. A conflict that began when the Saudi- and Emirati-led coalition took on Houthi rebels who had overthrown the internationally recognised president has splintered and spiralled, fuelling extremism and a southern separatist movement. These factors – and the spread of a lucrative war economy – mean peace prospects are more dire than ever. Violence has intensified since the unexpected US call for a ceasefire last month. With fighting flaring in the critical port of Hodeidah this week, the UN envoy delayed planned talks until the end of the year.
Continue reading...posted from The Guardian
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