Yemenis Victim of Warplanes, Famine, Cholera
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – International health bodies are warning about continuation of Saudi-led bombardment of Yemeni civilians and in the meantime, extension of a blockade on the Arab country which has resulted in famine and spread of Cholera.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia has also closed down Yemen’s air and seaports preventing the import of food and medicine.
Amidst a crowded field of global crises, Yemen takes the prize for the largest food security crisis in the world, with 14 million people food insecure (roughly half the population) and as many as two million in pre-famine conditions.
The World Health Organization has warned that the war has left Yemen’s health system close to collapse, with only 45 percent of facilities fully functional and drug availability declining by 70 percent. And degraded water systems have left humanitarians struggling to contain a resurgent cholera outbreak that is spreading beyond control.
Amid famine and health problems, spreads of Cholera have been also added to the problems in the region. Since April 27, the cholera cases in Yemen have been “increasing at an average of 5,000 a day,” WHO said in its last week report. “We are now facing the worst cholera outbreak in the world.”
Yemen's cholera epidemic, currently the largest in the world, has spread rapidly due to deteriorating hygiene and sanitation conditions and disruptions to the water supply across the country. Millions of people are cut off from clean water, and waste collection has ceased in major cities.
The cholera outbreak in war-torn Yemen is reaching new extremes with half a million suspected cases of the deadly disease, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly 2,000 people have died from the disease since April.
Use of Prohibited Weapons
International observers are blaming Saudi Arabia for use of famine and in the meantime prohibited weapons to win the war against Yemen.
Yemenis on social media and on the ground have reported that Saudi warplanes are spraying chemicals substances across the country.
On March 9, the Amnesty International rights group said in a statement that Saudi Arabia had used cluster bombs on three residential districts and agricultural land in Sa’ada back in mid-February.
While many reasons have been given following the spread of cholera across Yemen especially the destruction of health services and water facilities, but many Yemenis believe that cholera in the country is part of a biological warfare waged by the Saudi-led regime against the country.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has singled out Saudi Arabia as the source of the catastrophic cholera outbreak in Yemen.
The Russia Today Arabic news channel quoted Saleh as saying that the Saudi-led coalition was behind the spread of the highly contagious disease through the use of internationally banned weapons.
“The coalition is using devastating weapons such as cluster and thermobaric bombs which leave very harmful effects for the people of Yemen,” he added.
Cholera has been weaponized by the US, Japan (in World War II), South Africa (under apartheid), Iraq (under Saddam), and other states.
To be most effective, cholera must be spread through water supplies. That’s what’s happening in Yemen now.
Growing Call for Pressure on Saudi Arabia
World bodies and the Mass media are reacting to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and urge world power, in particular, US to stop support for Riyadh in its brutal war against Yemeni people.
International Development Secretary Priti Patel said recently that Yemen is on the brink of a catastrophic disaster if the world continues to close its eyes to the urgent help three quarters of people across the country desperately need.
The response by the international community is the only hope Yemeni people have to survive.
Meanwhile, Katy Wright, the head of advocacy for Oxfam, called on the international community to help seek solutions to Yemen's political crisis.
Also, US President Donald Trump support for Saudi genocide in Yemen has sparked criticism around the world and the US-based the Foreign Policy magazine said: Countless Yemeni lives hang in the balance as Trump gears up to greatly deepen US security cooperation with Saudi Arabia.
Reckless Saudi military policy has pushed Yemen to the brink of humanitarian collapse, and the kingdom is asking for more US military support. If the US doubles down on the Saudi approach, it will likely consign several million people to starvation.
Shifting US policy toward military escalation — as the Trump administration is reportedly considering — would have dire humanitarian consequences, the magazine concluded.
