Pro-government fighters give food to Yemeni children on a road leading to Yemen's southwestern port city of Mokha on Jan. 26, 2017. Photo:AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The Yemen conflict, UN analysis and rising aggressions
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | JUNE 27th 2020
The war in Yemen, lasting a little over five years now, is responsible for taking the lives of over 100,000 people according to The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). It is estimated that at least 85,000 of those deaths were caused more so by famine and starvation produced by the vicious conflict.
The Arab Spring of 2011 is what many believe to be the root of the problems that inevitably broke out into severe fighting. It was at this time when Yemen’s long-time authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was forced to hand over his position of power to his deputy Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi – this came following an uprising within the country.
The new assignment of President Hadi was a decision meant to inspire an era stability within the country. However, Hadi was known to struggle with many of the presidential duties, including dealing with various militant attacks, the growing issues of Yemen’s food insecurity, as well as incidents of corruption and continued loyalty from many of the military officers to the previous president Saleh.
The Northern Saada province, along with its neighbouring areas, was the first to be taken in 2014 by the Houthi Shia Muslim rebel group. This was the first major instance of conflict in the country that would soon start an all-out war between the nationally-recognised Yemen government, and the Houthi rebels. The Houthis went on to take the capital of the country, Sanaa, which led to the exile of President Hadi.
It’s been discovered recently by the United Nations that the coalition, which is at present backing Yemen's government in its war against the Houthi rebels, is responsible for the deaths and injuries of at least 222 children within the last year. In total, it’s been found that at least 395 children were killed and 1,447 were maimed last year as a result of the brutality of the conflict. It’s also been verified that 4,042 grave violations were committed against 2,159 children, according to the UN secretary general's report to the security council on children and armed conflict.
The United Nations are currently facing criticisms from human rights groups regarding their decision to remove the Saudi-led coalition from a blacklist of groups whose actions are considered harmful of children, a sort of child-right ‘list of shame’.
The director of the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, Adrianne Lapar, said that the UN’s choice of delisting the coalition “sends the message that powerful actors can get away with killing children,” and called for “an independent, objective, transparent assessment of the process leading to the decision.”
The primary danger to many children in Yemen at the moment is the threat of starvation and famine. A major UN charity has warned that millions of children could perish as a result of a “huge” drop in aid caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
Yemen was declared as having the world’s worst humanitarian crisis by the UN, and now there are claims by Unicef that in order to save the children in the country, it would need almost half a billion dollars. Thus far, it’s only received half the necessary amount, and two million children are said to be malnourished in Yemen at the moment.
“We cannot overstate the scale of this emergency as children, in what is already the world's worst humanitarian crisis, battle for survival as Covid-19 takes hold,” said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, Unicef's representative in Yemen. “If we do not receive urgent funding, children will be pushed to the brink of starvation and many will die.”
Since the years of conflict have ravished the country, it has essentially lost the majority of its services, including health care. The coronavirus threat is capable of causing serious spread in Yemen, though thus far, only 1,000 cases and over 280 deaths have been reported. The actual numbers are thought to be far higher.
By Patryk Krych | © The World Daily 2020
