Biden’s Empty Gesture: Houthis No Longer “Terrorists” but Yemen’s Suffering Only Grows

U.S IMPERIALISM 

Ahmed Abdulkareem

MintPress News | April 09, 2021

SAADA, YEMEN — In explaining a much-lauded move, President Joe Biden said that the reason the United States was removing Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement from the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list was to avoid exacerbating the humanitarian situation in the war-torn country and to allow much-needed aid to reach local residents. Yet images of children with jutting ribs, swelling bellies, and loose skin that have come to symbolize the war for the past six years can still be found all over Yemen.

Four-year-old Gharam Sha’ib stands at a bed covered with blue sheets in Hayden Rural Hospital in the northern Governorate of Saada. She is bare-boned with haunting eyes wide open and the outlines of her ribs are clearly visible through her skin. The malnourished girl arrived at the hospital this week from the Al-Sumayk village in western Saada, an area far removed from the waves of famine that have washed over Yemen in the past six years.

2021’s Most Pressing Humanitarian Crises Are All Victims of US War, Regime Change

THE WRATH OF U.S. EMPIRE

Alan Macleod

MintPress News | December 16, 2020

The International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) yearly report on the world’s most pressing humanitarian situations has just been published, with the three most disastrous cases — Yemen, Afghanistan, and Syria — all the product of decades of interventionist U.S. foreign policy.

For the third year in a row, Yemen has topped the IRC list, the report estimating that 80% of the country’s 29 million citizens are in need of humanitarian assistance. “The world is facing unprecedented humanitarian emergencies—as well as a political crisis of inaction by world leaders,” they warn.

More than Half of Yemeni Population Likely to Face Acute Food Insecurity by Mid-2021: UN Agencies

HUNGER AND WAR IN YEMEN

 Peoples Dispatch | December 04, 2020

More than half of Yemen’s population is on the verge of starvation and likely to face acute food insecurity by mid-2021 if urgent steps are not taken by the world community to end the war in the country and provide humanitarian relief. This was revealed by a new report jointly released by the World Food Programme, UNICEF, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Thursday, December 3.

Yemen war crimes: UN calls out U.S., UK, and France for complicity

A Journal of People report

The UN Human Rights Council slammed the U.S., UK and France for their complicity in alleged war crimes in Yemen.

The Council warned that abetting such crimes by selling arms or other aid is also illegal.

“States that knowingly aid or assist parties to the conflict in Yemen in the commission of violations would be responsible for complicity in the relevant international humanitarian law violations,” declared the UNHRC’s Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen in a report published on September 3, 2019.

‘We Will Not Be Complicit’: Protesting Assault on Yemen, Italian Dock Workers Refuse to Load Saudi Weapons Vessel

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

Common Dreams | May 21, 2019

Protesters and workers on strike prevent a Saudi ship Bahri Yanbu, that was prevented by French rights group ACAT from loading a weapons cargo at the French port of Le Havre due to concerns they might be used against civilians in Yemen, from loading cargo at the Port of Genoa, Italy May 20, 2019. (Photo: Massimo Pinca/Reuters)

In an act of defiance against Saudi Arabia’s brutal assault on Yemen—which is being carried out with the support of the United States and European nations—Italian union workers on Monday refused to load a Saudi vessel reportedly filled with weapons that could be used to fuel the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“We will not be complicit in what is happening in Yemen,” union leaders said in a statement.

According to Reuters, dockworkers attempted to have the Saudi ship—officially called the the Bahri Yanbu—barred from entering the Port of Genoa.

Coalition Ignores Famine Warnings and Continues Assault on Yemen as Critics Question US Complicity

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer

Women and girls line up to receive food aid on June 10, 2018 in Sana’a, the rebel-held captial of Yemen. About 70 percent of humanitarian assistance reaches Yemenis through Hodeida, a port city currently under seige by Saudi-led coalition forces. (Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)

Ignoring international aid groups’ warnings that an attack on the Yemeni city of Hodeida, which is held by Houthi rebels, could exacerbate hunger in an impoverished and war-torn nation already on the brink of famine, Saudi-led U.S.-backed coalition forces continued a sweeping assault on the Red Sea port city Saturday, reportedlyseizing control of an airport.

Civil War—Fueled by US Bombs—Is Driving Yemen into Crisis.

Oxfam International | June 08, 2017

WASHINGTON – The Yemeni people are on the brink of famine after two years of conflict. In this time, millions of people have been displaced from their homes. And without adequate access to medical supplies or facilities, every ten minutes a child dies in Yemen due to preventable disease.

Yet at a time when the Yemeni people desperately need an end to violence, President Trump is proposing to sell nearly $510 million worth of weapons, including precision-guided munitions, to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s use of these munitions in Yemen has fueled the conflict in Yemen, creating a humanitarian catastrophe. Tomorrow, Congress will vote on this arms deal that would be used to fuel the war in Yemen. The Yemeni people need peace – not more bombs.

Cholera cases in Yemen may reach 130,000 in two weeks, UNICEF warns

United Nations News Centre | June 02, 2017\

A child with severe diarrhoea or cholera receives treatment at the Sab’een Hospital in Sana’a, Yemen,on 12 May 2017. © UNICEF/UN065873/Alzekri

With about 70,000 cholera cases reported with nearly 600 fatalities in Yemen, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today warned that an already dire situation for children is turning into a disaster.

“Cholera doesn’t need a permit to cross a checkpoint or a border, nor does it differentiate between areas of political control,” said UNICEF Regional Director, Geert Cappelaere, following his visit to the war-torn country.

Arming The Dictators

A  Morning Star Editorial | 10 October, 2016

THE VICIOUS slaughter of more than 140 mourners and the maiming and mutilation of hundreds more in Yemen’s capital Sanaa by the Saudi-led military coalition demands an immediate response. And it has been clear for a very long time what sort of response would be best from Britain.

The British government has approved the sale of billions of pounds of weaponry, munitions and war machines to Saudi Arabia — the very weapons deployed against the people of Yemen.

Britain maintains a delegation of military personnel to the Saudis and offers training and support. The relationship stretches back not just decades, as Britain has sought to maintain its position in the strategically vital, oil-rich Middle East, but fully 100 years.