United Nations officials say will face the world’s largest famine in decades if the Saudi-led coalition refuses to lift its blockade on deliveries of aid. On Monday, the coalition shut air, land and sea routes into Yemen after Houthi rebels fired a missile that was intercepted near the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Saudi Arabia says its blockade is needed to stop Iran from sending weapons to the rebels. U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock warned that if the blockade is not lifted, the resulting famine will claim millions of lives.
The U.N. says aid agencies were given no prior notice of the Saudi decision to shut down all land, air, seaports in Yemen. The World Food Program said Monday, out of Yemen’s population of 28 million people, about 20 million, quote, “do not know where they’re going to get their next meal.” Meanwhile, medical experts warn the clampdown will worsen Yemen’s cholera epidemic, which has sickened more than 900,000 people.
Afrah Nasser talking:
It’s an extremely dire situation. Like even before this total blockade, there were many reports that every 10 minutes there is one child getting killed because of the implications caused by the war, such as, you know, the total collapse of the healthcare system. Already there was a partial blockade imposed on many entries in Yemen for more than one year, that really exasperated the humanitarian situation because of the lack of access for, you know, humanitarian operations to operate in the country and to send humanitarian aid and send medicine and food. And so, even before this total blockade, there was a partial blockade that impacted all aspects of life. So, the recent, like over the weekend, the decision by Saudi Arabia or the Saudi-led coalition to impose a total blockade means a death sentence that will kill all Yemenis. If we used to warn about a looming famine, it is already there.
Now we will not even hear or listen or know anything about what’s happening on the ground. The journalists are where they’re behind jail. International journalists are not able to have an access to the country. So, it’s going to be like—it’s beyond tragedy, that doesn’t even caught, you know, world’s attention, because of the blockade and the impossible access for journalists to report from there.
I think the U.S. administration—actually, to be honest, it’s hopeless with the White House, and our only hope is with the Congress and the senators, who have better sympathy toward the situation in Yemen.
And no question that the U.S. has its hand in what’s going on in Yemen. They are a participant in creating, you know, the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. They are a participant in creating the largest famine that we will see, that the U.N. official was talking about earlier. I think the U.S. administration has to admit that it is giving its political backing to the Saudi-led coalition. It has given its, you know, support with the arms sales and the intelligence and logistic assistance to the military operation, plus even with this total blockade. The U.S. Navy has about 80 percent control over the ports to Yemen. So, absolutely, this is—what’s going on in Yemen is absolutely relevant to the U.S. administration.
From my meetings so far, there have been some positive feedback, because, you know, as a journalist, I was able to meet and talk and report like firsthand to them. But that is not, you know, like a privilege that other journalists get. If it was not for the support from Committee to Protect Journalists, I wouldn’t have that chance, you know, to give like a firsthand narrative to what’s going on to my family and friends and everyone that I know in Yemen.
– on the question of arms sales, The Independent newspaper in the U.K. reported recently—this week, in fact—that the country’s sales of bombs and missiles to Saudi Arabia have increased by almost 500 percent since the Saudi bombing campaign of Yemen began. The U.S. and the U.K. remain the largest suppliers of arms to Saudi Arabia.
That sounds really shocking, but to be honest, for me, I was not surprised when I read the report. Just like one week or two weeks ago, there was a report that the U.K. general secretary was—state secretary was giving a talk at a hearing, saying that our criticism to Saudi Arabia human rights record would definitely harm our arms sales to them. So, absolutely, there is a double standard from Western governments, like the U.K. and the U.S. and others, that, you know, once their ally have the money and the cash, they will have disregard to the human costs that these weapons or how these weapons could be used to commit war crimes. This is absolutely like a double standard, that Yemenis themselves know or understand better than everyone, that their blood costs nothing. Their lives don’t matter in face of the cash coming from Saudi Arabia or the other members in the Saudi-led coalition, such as United Arab Emirates.
I live in Sweden, and I’m working right now on an article that expose the arms sales from Sweden to the United Arab Emirates. Believe it or not, there is like a military weaponry office and semi-factory in Abu Dhabi, in United Arab Emirates. And I can imagine that living and, you know, thinking that—in Western countries, there are a lot of lecturing about the human rights and respect for democracy values and so on. But once it’s in a country that its only fault that it’s poor, so there is no—there is disregard to the human cost that such a arms deal could, you know, accomplish on the ground.
there are many participants in what’s happening in Yemen. Absolutely, it’s Saudi Arabia and the members of the Saudi-led coalition, and also other Western countries that are directly involved in, you know, the military operation. So, all these countries have responsibility to, you know, to uphold the human well-being, before their—the political and military gains that they are looking for. It’s been more than three years now, with no military gains made by either one side from the warring parts. So, this war sounds insane, actually.
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Afrah Nasser
Yemeni journalist and founder and editor-in-chief of the Sana’a Review.
— source democracynow.org 2017-11-10