Whenever Yemen is spoken of, it forms an image of bleakness in the mind. But most of the people aren’t aware of the reason for this causation, let alone of existence of this country. Currently, Yemen is facing the worst humanitarian crisis and one of the largest man-induced famines in history. Yet it remains in the shadows. What are the reasons behind the country’s having to thrive under rubbles for years and the plight of the Yemenis? The following article briefly outlines the cause of war before throwing a light onto the horrific conditions the Yemenis (those who make it alive) have to live through every day, which most of the news media would not cover.
The conflict has its roots in the Arab Spring of 2011, when an uprising to demand democracy forced the country’s long time authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand power over to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. This political transition was supposed to stabilize Yemen, one of the poorest nations in the Middle East. But President Hadi struggled to deal with many problems including militant attacks, corruption, food insecurity and the continuing loyalty of many military officers to Saleh. The Houthi Movement (fighting for the Yemenis) began in 2014. It is a Shia-Muslim rebel movement which took advantage of president Hadi’s weakness by taking control of their northern heartland of Saada Province and the neighbouring areas. In early 2015, the Houthis gradually took over the capital Sanaa. This forced president Hadi to exile abroad.
The conflict dramatically escalated in March 2015, when Saudi Arabia and eight other mostly Sunni Arab states- backed by the US, UK and France- began air strikes against the Houthis, with the declared aim of restoring Hadi’s government. This Saudi-led coalition feared that continued success of the Houthis would give their rival regional power and the Shia-majority state, Iran, a foothold in Yemen. Saudi Arabia claimed that Iran is backing the Houthis with weapons and logistical support, a charge Iran denies.
Fighting continues and the alliance between the Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh also collapsed in November 2017, following deadly clashes over control of Sanaa’s biggest mosque. Houthi fighters launched an operation to take full control of the capital and Saleh was killed. For more than five years on, the conflict has remained at a stalemate, with many countries involved. Saudi Arabia continues heavily bombing Yemen with the help of coalition. More than 100,000 have died since then.
Yemen is facing the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with more than 24 million people – some 80 percent of the population – in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 12 million children. The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) said in October 2019 that it had recorded more than 100,000 fatalities, including 12,000 civilians killed in direct attacks, making it the second most lethal year of the war so far. Thousands more civilians have died from preventable causes, including malnutrition, disease and poor health. About 80% of the population - 24 million people - needs humanitarian assistance and protection. Some 20 million people need help securing food, according to the UN. An estimated 2 million children are acutely malnourished, including almost 360,000 children under five years old who are struggling to survive. With only half of the country's 3,500 medical facilities fully functioning, almost 20 million people lack access to adequate healthcare , enough clean water and sanitation. Consequently, medics have struggled to deal with the largest cholera outbreak ever recorded, which has resulted in more than 2.2 million suspected cases and 3,895 related deaths since October 2016. The war has displaced more than 3.65 million from their homes
The United Nations has warned that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic could "exceed the combined toll of war, disease, and hunger over the last five years.” With COVID-19 now being rampant, Yemen is facing “an emergency within an emergency”. Sanitation and clean water are in short supply. Only half of health facilities are functioning, and many that remain operational lack basic equipment like masks and gloves, let alone oxygen and other essential supplies to treat the coronavirus. Many health workers are receiving no salaries or incentives, and 10.2 million children don't have access to basic healthcare. Children continue to be killed and maimed in the conflict, while the damages and shutdowns of schools and hospitals have disrupted access to education and health services, leaving children even more vulnerable and robbed of their futures. Before COVID-19, around 2 million children were out of school and now with schools closed all around the country, it renders some 7.8 million children unable to access education. As the coronavirus spreads, tens of thousands more children could develop life-threatening severe acute malnutrition over the next several months, while the overall number of malnourished children under the age of five could increase to a total of 2.4 million.
Who will answer for such ghastly statistics? A child under the age of 5 dies every 10 minutes due to preventable causes. This includes starvation, malnutrition and those killed by bombs and guns. There have been attacks on schools, heath facilities, markets, roads, bridges and even water points. Over two thirds of the damage to public infrastructure, is as a result of airstrikes. Who pays for that? The Yemenis. Gender based violence has increased 63% since the war started. This implies more rapes, more forced marriages, child brides and more acts of violence against women and young boys and girls. Who bears the brunt? The Yemenis. The Yemen health care system has collapsed. Physical, psychological and mental support is unavailable. Millions of children are suffering from trauma from the conflict and the UN suggests many of these children who will luckily survive will carry heavy emotional burdens into their adulthood with far-reaching consequences. Who will take accountability for such deplorable ordeals suffered by innocent Yemeni lives?
When all this information surfaced, the expectation was that the news would be picked up by international news outlets. But barring a few, including Al Jazeera and DW, the news did not get global prominence. With such alarming statistics from the result of a war involving regional superpowers, with the backing of the US and UK, how does this event not make headline news?
The reason primarily being that news outlets tend to focus on the 'Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia versus the Shia Iran proxy war' narrative, which overlooks the country's deepening humanitarian crisis. When western news outlets cover Yemen it's often 'parachute journalism.' This is mainly because it is hard to access Yemen and requires permission from the Saudis and the Houthis. In its latest report, the Yemeni Journalist Syndicate said that more than 100 press violations were committed in the first six months of 2016, including 10 cases of attempted murder, 24 abductions and disappearances, and 12 cases of assaults on journalists and their offices. The situation for foreign journalists isn't any better, amid reports that those who get access can be subject to harassment and kidnappings. Yemeni activists and journalists point to one other major factor as to why the country is kept low on news agendas: many of the people attempting to get to Europe are from Syria and Iraq, so western news audiences are more affected by what is happening in those countries than what's happening in Yemen.
The calamity in Syria serves as an example of global ignorance like this, until it turned into a catastrophic war. Everyone, as citizens of the world and as a human, has a responsibility to pressure countries to stop engaging in Yemen's war and to stop selling the arms that fuel it. People suffering in faraway places do not make the rest of the world immune from it. People everywhere should care, stand up for righteousness and against injustice and inhumanity. Signing donations and petitions are small steps towards fighting back, which has the potential to gradually develop into a concerted movement to achieve the impossible, before Yemen becomes extinct, as some reports portray. But that is media- sensationalism, isn’t it?
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