The world’s biggest humanitarian crisis is happening right now in Yemen. As a civil war rages on and tragedy hits every day, Yemeni people try to survive poverty and starvation. The heart of central Arab quickly became one of the poorest countries in the Middle East.
The War
For the last five years, Yemen has been torn apart by war.
The conflict first became apparent during the Arab Spring in 2011. Yemenis protested against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s oppressive rule.
In response to this, Saudi Arabia, with other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, saw over negotiations to force Saleh out. They installed a new government in Yemen which put Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi in charge.
The public mood had little change. The initiatives that had come out of revolution were negotiated by Gulf powers who seemed to simply return the same oppressive elites to power.
Previously, the Houthis were heavily involved in the Arab Spring against Saleh. However, both Saleh and the Houthis were side-lined by the GCC’s plans for Yemen’s new government. The former enemies joined forces with a plan to gain/regain power in the country.
The Houthis with some of Saleh’s allies took over Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014. Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia feared that any continued success from the Houthis would give Iran, their long time rival, regional power and a Shia-majority state. So, they formed a coalition with several other countries to return Hadi to power.
The conflict escalated in 2015 when the Saudi-led coalition began a campaign of relentless air strikes to drive the Houthis out.
The years of airstrikes and fighting between this coalition and the Houthis still continue despite the breakdown of the Houthi-Saleh alliance, which led to the killing of Saleh in 2017.
In late 2019, the UN verified the deaths of at least 7,500 civilians with most caused by Saudi-led coalition air strikes. Other groups believe it is a lot higher, recording more than 100,000 fatalities with 12,000 being civilians killed in direct attacks. The coalition has also been reported to have been targeting ‘non-military zones’ like schools and hospitals. These airstrikes have been logistically and militarily backed by France, the US and the UK.
The Crisis
The war has horrifically pushed millions to the brink of famine.
In 2015, the Saudi-led coalition created a barrier around Yemen to stop supplies getting in. Aid workers told the Associated Press on 2018 that the Houthis have also been intercepting any supplies that do get through.
Yemenis desperately need supplies. More than 24 million people depend on some kind of humanitarian need. For perspective, the population of Australia is around 24.5 million.
UNICEF reported that more than 2 million children under five are suffering from acute malnutrition and require treatment.
Covid-19
Yemen is now facing an emergency within an emergency.
The impact of Covid-19 is devastating after years of relentless civil war and famine.
Already, Yemen’s health system is essentially in complete collapse. Any health facilities that are operational lack basic and essential equipment.
Clean water and sanitation are in short supply. Now, this is more threatening to Yemenis than ever as they face not only Covid-19 but also a cholera outbreak. This year the UN reported 137,000 cases of cholera and diarrhea with a quarter of them in children below five.
Officials have reported around 112 deaths due to Covid-19 but the World Health Organization fear the cases and deaths are being severely underreported. Save The Children have said nearly 400 people in Aden were reported to have died from coronavirus-like symptoms in just one week in May.
Civilians have been forced to bury their dead in secret and have been banned from discussing cause of death.
Now, the UN has warned that three quarters of the aid programmes will have to shut in weeks without more funding, even as both Covid-19 and cholera continue to spread in the country. International donors pledged $1.34bn for Yemen on June 2nd. This is well below the $2.4bn fundraising target needed by the UN to prevent severe cutbacks in its aid operation.
At a time when the dead are taking up more space than the living, Yemen needs international help now more than ever.
Jessica Sharkey
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Image courtesy of Felton Davis on Flickr.