By Shreya Margale
In Yemen, the integrated impact of more than 5 years of socio-political conflict between the Hadi-led Yemeni government and Houthi armed movement, economic decline, and institutional collapse has left 24 million people – about two-thirds of the population – in need of humanitarian aid and protection.This long-running conflict involves Houthi rebels (aligned with the former President Saleh) and a pro-government institution supported by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and UAE.
The crisis has reached cataclysmic proportions, and with COVID-19 exacerbating living conditions and spreading cross-country, sanitation and clean water are in short supply. Furthermore, with a famine threatening thousands of lives and thousands of children suffering from malnutrition, Yemen requires the utmost attention of younger masses, in terms of donations, petitions, and spreading the word. Ideally, countries and their governments should be pushing lucrative legislation, monetary and humanitarian assistance, as well as mediate the considered conflict. However, inaction by a majority of states is evident: to shed light on these atrocities and highlight youth voices pushing for tangible action, the aforementioned tasks, in addition to being accurately informed can go a long way.
As a result, UNICEF has declared Yemen’s ongoing dissension as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Ignorance is the stagnation of innovative solutions, which is why recognizing and working towards alleviating Yemen’s humanitarian crisis through social media activism, online articles, and word of mouth is of utmost importance. Specifically considering social media, it can be a vessel to transform knowledge into tangible action: sharing accurate information, linking petitions, donations and valid newsreels can help educate, empathize and create opportunities for the youth to strive for social justice. Often, constant exposure to news on social media allows individuals to take the conversation beyond an app, into the confines of their home and communities, especially if the issue has not been addressed in the media. Sadly, the Yemen crisis does not get NEARLY enough media coverage that it deserves, as #BlackLivesMatter is a current focal point (as it should be, but we need to prioritize Yemen too). Therefore, please read the following article and inform yourselves: and do your part in donating, and sharing accurate information over social media.
10 Facts You Need to Know:
The humanitarian situation is still the worst in the world, with 24 million people in need of assistance.
Every 10 minutes, a child under the age of 5 dies of preventable causes.
Approximately 3 million people have been displaced.
Around 18 million Yemenis don’t have access to safe drinking water and cases of cholera have surged.
Humanitarian response faces a funding gap of nearly 2 million dollars.
The conflict has resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 people, including over 20,000 civilians, and has forced 3.65 million people to flee.
In 21 days (tracking from 19th June) Yemen will run out of oil, a necessity for basic household activities and a major export commodity. A majority of underfunded hospitals will shut down, and there will be a scarcity of clean water.
In 111 days (tracking from 19th June), Yemen will run out of rice and in 97 days will run out of wheat.
In the past 15 minutes, a child in Yemen passed away. Another child will die in the next 15, and another after that, and after that.
Data extrapolated by BBC News, as of 3 December 2019: Highest casualties and refugee numbers demarcated to date in Yemen.
Civil War
The conflict stems from a failed political transition, which was intended to bring stability to Yemen following the Arab Spring uprising that forced its authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, in 2011. As president, Hadi struggled to alleviate problems such as attacks by jihadists, a separatist movement in South Yemen. The Yemen Separatist Movement comprises fighters from Aden who are loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which is a political body established in 2017, aimed at gaining autonomy for South Yemen (i.e. separating from northern Yemen).
He also struggled to secure command of the security personnel (since they were still loyal to Saleh) and was ineffective with his measures for alleviating corruption, unemployment, and food insecurity.
The Houthi movement – which represents Yemen's Zaidi Shia Muslim minority – took advantage of the new president’s weakness, by taking control of their northern heartland and neighboring areas, fighting a series of rebellions against Saleh. Alarmed by the rise of this group, which Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states believed to be backed by Iran, they began an air campaign. Grotesquely known as the Death from Above, this Saudi Arabian campaign was armed with bombs made by the United States and British-made fighter jets. This venture was aimed at defeating the Houthis, in hopes of ending Iranian influence in Yemen and restoring Mr. Hadi's government. However, data collected by Al Jazeera suggests that this aerial campaign resulted in 60,000 deaths, despite assurances from the Saudi Coalition that civilian casualties would be avoided. Militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the local affiliate of the rival Islamic State group (IS) have also taken advantage of the chaos by seizing territory in the south and carrying out deadly attacks, notably in Aden.
In August 2019, fighting erupted in the south between Saudi-backed government forces and an ostensibly allied southern separatist movement supported by the UAE, the Southern Transitional Council (STC).
In April 2020, the STC declared self-rule in Aden, breaking a peace deal signed with the internationally recognized government, saying it would govern the port city and southern provinces. This decision was provoked by the United Arab Emirates’ vocal support for the Council. Furthermore, The STC said it acted because the Riyadh agreement – a deal between the STC and the UN-backed government of Yemen, brokered by Saudi Arabia – was not implemented. According to Inside Arabia, the implications of an STC rule will be disastrous: especially in Aden due to a majority of Hathi supporters. Saleh Alnoud, a spokesperson of the STC, said on May 1: “We don’t make it a secret that people want to establish an independent state . . . the STC will try to achieve the goals for the southern cause as much as possible.” He considered the continuity of Yemen’s unity as “inconceivable”, suggesting that STC is adamant on separation, implying that the Riyadh agreement, or the peace talks with Saudi Arabia are null and void. In fact, Saudi Arabia announced a unilateral ceasefire the same month due to the coronavirus pandemic but the Houthis rejected it, demanding the air and sea blockades in Sanaa and Hudaydah be lifted. Therefore, the conflict is still in progress.
Famine
As the war rages, 13 million Yemeni civilians face starvation. U.N. officials say Yemen is suffering one of the largest man-induced famines in history. Some critics identify two main culprits. The first is the Houthi rebels, who have been accused of illegally confiscating food and reselling it for war funds. The second is Saudi Arabia, whose airstrikes and civilian bombings have been labeled by the Human Rights Watch as illegal. These attacks have made it difficult to produce and distribute food to the malnourished who need it most. Emotive posts on social media show children eating leaves in the form of a paste to escape starvation, or eating leftover rice granules. These sentient pictures have gone viral on platforms like Instagram and Twitter, a driving factor for posts, stories, tweets, and likes. Arguably, social media activism based on emotional imagery rather than objective information can be problematic, since it’s a spur of subjectivity rather than crucial information that can help the youth take steps towards tangible action. Performative activism? Sometimes. A vessel for credible resources like donations? Rarely. The need of the hour is to share accurate information and resources that can help us contribute along with raising awareness through photographs, testimonials, etc.. The latter isn’t nearly as effective without the former.
A severely malnourished boy rests on a hospital bed at the Aslam Health Center, Hajjah, Yemen, Oct. 1, 2018.
Critics of the UN, WHO, and even within the United States, blame the U.S. for propelling the conflict by selling billions of dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia. Two years ago, U.S. President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia had agreed to spend $110 billion in “leading the fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism”. While the arms deal mostly consists of letters of intent and is a far smaller number than the detailed $110 billion, the kingdom’s anti-terrorism campaign, along with its efforts to contain Iranian influence, are in line with Washington’s wider strategic interests in the region. Houthis oppose this arms deal because they view Saudi Arabia as pandering to western influence and not supporting pan-Arab culture.
While many claim the U.S. bears indirect responsibility for Yemen’s food shortages, others paradoxically point to America’s role in saving millions of Yemenis from starvation. Arguably, this appears to be counterintuitive: ever since Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015, the United States gave its full support to a relentless air campaign, where Saudi warplanes and missiles hit thousands of targets, including civilian sites and infrastructure. From the beginning, US officials have insisted that American weapons, training, and intelligence assistance would help the Saudis avoid causing even more civilian casualties, seemingly an obscure lie to fuel Saudi support. In reality, Saudi Arabia is the United States’ biggest weapons consumer, pouring 6.4 billion dollars into this industry every year.
Candidly, it seems as if the Obama AND Trump administration has constantly looked the other way while US allies have been committing war crimes and avoid responsibility for being a key player in the crisis. Despite these facts, the United States donates approximately $2.5 billion annually to UNICEF and WHO--more than Britain, and Germany and other EU members combined. Is this a way to balance the scales? Possibly. Does it undo the damage of supplying weapons and fuelling the world’s largest humanitarian crisis? Definitely not. This aid they provided is still not enough: added to the suspended World Food Program -- which is the food-assistance branch of the UN addressing hunger and promoting food security -- the Yemen famine has never been worse.
The Cholera Outbreak
According to the World Health Organisation, “Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Cholera remains a global threat to public health and an indicator of inequity and lack of social development”.
Yemen has faced numerous humanitarian crises that have exacerbated its cholera epidemic including an economic crisis, food insecurity, and a long-term, multi-state conflict that continued for nearly 5 years. Over 5 million children under the age of five in Yemen are facing a heightened threat of cholera and Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) as the country continues to experience increased heavy rains that began in mid-April. More than 110,000 cases of suspected cholera have been recorded across 290 of Yemen’s 331 districts since January 2020. Children under the age of five account for a quarter of these cases.
Outside of the humanitarian and global health communities, there has been limited press coverage and attention for the cholera epidemic over the past year, despite worsening conditions. In fact, the outbreak doubled in size, from 1 million to 2 million cases, since January 2018 while the world was focused on other outbreaks and emergencies. Since the cholera epidemic is a direct result of unsanitary conditions, malnutrition, destituteness exacerbated by violence, bombings, and war, it is critical that the international community pays attention to the millions of Yemenis suffering from cholera in the midst of other social, political, economic, and health challenges. It is crucial to facilitate outbreak control efforts as part of comprehensive health and humanitarian aid, particularly in areas ravaged by conflict. However, global attention and media coverage remains limited.
Floods
Heavy rains and flooding in Yemen since April are affecting 150,000 people. Homes, roads shelters, and bridges are damaged, water supplies are polluted, and basic services like electricity are cut because of the disaster (Source: Jens Larke, UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordination Office). It has been reported that the capital city of Sanaa is the most affected city due to the floods, and electricity cuts since April 21 in Aden. On the same day, a tropical storm hit the southern coast of Yemen with the highest impact in Lahj, Aden, Taiz, Ad Dali’, Abyan, and Hadramawt. According to preliminary assessments by the Outbreak Observatory, at least 150,000 people were affected across 13 governorates, including 64,000 internally displaced people.
Statistics of those affected by and displaced from their homes due to the recent floods in Yemen
COVID-19 Impact on Yemeni Communities
The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is a prelude for another potential tragedy. Low immunity levels across the population make the preservation of large-scale aid programs in health, such as WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, a UNICEF initiative), and nutrition vital for the survival of millions of vulnerable people.
On 22 May, Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, “With only half of the health facilities fully functioning, Yemen’s health system needs significant assistance to counter the threat of COVID-19. Tests remain in short supply. COVID Rapid Response Teams, for example, are funded only for the next six weeks”. The country has a minimal case count only because of the near-total absence of testing. So far, authorities have performed fewer than 1,000 COVID-19 tests or 31 per 1 million citizens. That’s a lower per capita figure than in northeast Syria, Chad, or Idlib.
COVID-19 has contributed to the inflation of basic food items and a drop in remittances from migrant workers—one of the country’s most important sources of income—since the pandemic began. Doctors also fear that COVID-19 could inhibit Yemen’s ability to cope with other health crises like the cholera pandemic, polio, malaria, water-based diarrhoea, and malnutrition.
Thus, rather than a standalone problem, the global pandemic adds another layer to Yemen’s already complex crisis. Moreover, epidemiologists from Geneva estimate the novel coronavirus in Yemen could spread “faster, more widely and with deadlier consequences”, due to the current low immunity levels, and unhygienic surroundings, propagated by famine, non-existent healthcare, and a cholera outbreak.
Economic Crisis
Yemen’s tanking economy threatens the lives of more people than bombs/guns do. Significant damage to important public infrastructure has contributed to a disruption of basic services such as hospitals, markets, schools, and government buildings; while financial insecurity has delayed the rehabilitation of oil exports — which was the largest source of foreign currency before the war — severely limiting government revenue and supply of foreign exchange for important imports. The bifurcation of national finances, including the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY), between the conflicting parties, and ad hoc policy decisions (i.e. solutions designed for this specific problem) by them further compounded the economic crisis and humanitarian suffering from violence. The central bank is also at the centre of a political dispute between the Aden-based government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by Saudi Arabia, and the Houthi government in the capital Sanaa. Affordability of food is a rapidly emerging threat to household welfare, as preexisting global food price increases, and rial depreciation is now interacting with COVID-19 related trade restrictions. Yemen’s import dependence is exacerbated by the impact of desert locusts on the cropping season.
To conclude, with socio-political, economical problems coupled with diseases like COVID-19 and cholera, Yemen is facing a humanitarian crisis that is inching towards the point of no return, warranting one of the largest poverty rates in the world, a malnourished population and one of the worst economies globally. Moreover, there is already an existing international conflict, with powers in the Middle East, the European Union, and the United States taking sides and providing weapons/aid depending on their stances. As mentioned, the US is the biggest exporter of automatic weapons to Saudi Arabia (essentially fuelling the crisis), while countries like France and the UK are intimately involved in the conflict: they too supply weapons and provide military support to the Saudi-led coalition, the side responsible for the highest number of civilian fatalities. Iran has been accused of supporting the Houthi revolution, while countries that are a member of the Saudi-led coalition are actively involved in military action in Yemen. These countries include Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain.
The war has ravaged Yemen, turning its landscape into a breathing humanitarian catastrophe and genocide. The worst part is, many global powers and key players in the region are intimately spurring the conflict rather than alleviating it. The civil war has brought forth a massive cholera outbreak, homelessness, famine, and violence, with people struggling to make ends meet. This is the pinnacle of what is termed as the global refugee crisis: our voices, donations, and awareness can go a long way to stimulate tangible action. After all, what’s the point of having a voice if we are going to remain silent when it matters most?
Citations
"How COVID-19 Is Spreading Undetected Through Yemen". Time, 2020, https://time.com/5843732/yemen-covid19-invisible-crisis/. Accessed 26 June 2020.
"N Korea's Kim Suspends Plans For Military Action Against S Korea". Aljazeera.Com, 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/korea-kim-suspends-plans-military-action-south-200624004316030.html. Accessed 26 June 2020.
"Over 5 Million Children Face Threat Of Cholera And Acute Water Diarrhea In The Midst Of COVID-19 As Yemen Gets Heavy Rains". Unicef.Org, 2020, https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/over-5-million-children-face-threat-cholera-and-acute-water-diarrhea-midst-covid-19. Accessed 26 June 2020.
"Saudi Arabia Declares Cease-Fire In Yemen, Citing Fears Of Coronavirus". Nytimes.Com, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/world/middleeast/saudi-yemen-ceasefire-coronavirus.html. Accessed 26 June 2020.
"World Report 2020: Rights Trends In Yemen". Human Rights Watch, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/yemen. Accessed 26 June 2020.
"Yemen Crisis: Why Is There A War?". BBC News, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29319423. Accessed 26 June 2020.
"Yemen: Flash Floods - Mar 2020". Reliefweb, 2020, https://reliefweb.int/disaster/ff-2020-000123-yem. Accessed 26 June 2020.
Čok, Giorgio. "Divide And Survive: Ethiopia's Relations With The Gulf And Turkey". Alaraby, 2020, https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2020/6/25/divide-and-survive-ethiopia-balances-gulf-turkey-ties. Accessed 26 June 2020.
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