24 million people are doomed to die amidst falling bombs, severe scarcity of foods, cholera outbreak and a surging pandemic.
By Harjas Kaur
While we sit in the comfort of our homes waiting for this pandemic to subside so that we can socialize once again and visit our favorite eatery to devour on its choicest delicacies, people in a far fetched Middle East country known as Yemen are forced to feed on leaves for survival. A population of 24 million is doomed to die amidst falling bombs, severe scarcity of foods, cholera outbreak and a surging pandemic.
UN has dubbed the plight of the country as “The World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis”. Yemen needs our attention and it needs it now. The answer to how things got so bad for a country that boasts of abundance of natural resources and fossil fuels lies in its history.
Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. Akin to most Middle East countries, it too has witnessed political instability over the decades owing to coups, uprisings and a civil war. The civil war that started between Houthis, a shia minority political group and the loyalists to Ali Abdul Saleh, the former president who was ousted from the office owing to an uprising, has now turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resolve the bad blood between these two arch rival countries. The Saudi Arabia boasts of backing from a coalition of Middle East countries and logistical supply from The US, France and The United Kingdom. Thus, it has taken participation from many countries including some of the most well off economies to unleash the hell on earth.
According to United Nations, Yemen is on course to become the world's poorest country if the conflict persists. The war has resulted in significant increase in poverty statistics from 47% of population in 2014 to 79% by the end of 2019. A report by WFH (World Food Programme) reveals that ,”The current level of hunger in Yemen is unprecedented and is causing severe hardship for millions of people. Despite ongoing humanitarian assistance, 15.9 million people wake up hungry every day. It is estimated that, in the absence of food assistance, this number would go up to 20 million.”
The rate of child malnutrition is one of the highest in the world and the nutrition situation continues to deteriorate. Around 22 million Yemenis require healthcare and nutritional aid to survive. Despite such adverse circumstances people are unable to access aid due to land, sea and air barriers imposed by Saudi Arabia led coalition and even if some international peace organizations manage to surpass it the houthis lunge upon them letting the masses to starve and die.
The horrific state of affairs is aggravated by outbreak of cholera and other endemic diseases resulting in mounting death tolls. According to a report in the SUN tabloid, “The UN had verified the deaths of at least 7,500 civilians by September 2019, with most caused by Saudi-led coalition air strikes.
However, monitoring groups believe the death toll is far higher. In October last year, the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) said it had recorded more than 100,000 deaths, including 12,0000 civilians killed in direct attacks.More than 23,000 fatalities were reported in 2019.
According to the Yemen Data Project, more than 17,500 civilians have been killed and injured since 2015 - with a quarter of all civilians killed in air raids said to be women and children.
Some 100,000 people are now thought to be dead because of the conflict, from direct involvement and knock on effects such as mass starvation and inadequate sanitation.”
The people of Yemen are experiencing hell on earth as they’re being denied basic human rights like food, clothes and infrastructure. The future of children is bleak and doomed as 3 out of every 4 children in Yemen suffers from malnutrition and depends on aid. A shattering video that recently went viral on twitter showed some Yemenis consuming leaves to survive due to dearth of food. Many countries have a part to play in causing the crisis that Yemen is suffering from currently.It is now our common responsibility to provide people of Yemen with basic necessities for survival.
YEMEN NEEDS OUR ATTENTION AND IT NEEDS IT NOW.
Comments