The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Yemen is now in “imminent danger of the worst famine the world has seen for decades. in the absence of immediate action, millions of lives may be lost”. He went on to urge all parties involved to act urgently to “stove off catastrophe.
In a different instance, the UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, Sir Mark Lowcock, told the UN Security Council that the international community has abandoned Yemen in the midst of a possible famine. He went on to say that ”the most urgent task in Yemen today is to prevent widespread famine… the risk is growing, and malnutrition has never been worse” He went on to say that words such as ‘acutely malnourished’ and ‘food security’ were “neutral technical terms that obscure the horrors inflicted by famine on the body and soul”.
Since the war broke out in 2015, over 128,000 people have been killed, be it civilians being killed by indiscriminate Saudi bombing, or people involved with the warring parties, according to ACLED. Their report goes on to state that over 164,000 people have been forced to flee for their lives in 2020 alone, when the fighting eases off, the occasional cholera outbreaks, lack of food, water and sanitary items as well the coronavirus outbreak, further worsens the Yemeni situation.
According to UN reports, Yemen’s health service has simply stopped functioning. A fifth of the country’s district authorities have no doctors. One doctor is quoted as saying “we have no treatment or vaccines at all… we have no neurosurgeon in the whole province”
The humanitarian situation in Yemen is reaching a point with of return. If Saudi and the UAE don’t stop arming warring parties as well as stop the aerial raids carried out in Yemen, with the West intervening and helping with the basic needs of the Yemeni people such as food, water, sanitary equipment’s and shelter.
The UN special envoy, Martin Griffiths, is chairing over a linked series of ceasefire negotiations and “peace processes”. The current situation is now a bit different. There are now three current sides, not just the two. A southern separatist movement, a relic of the old division has made a bid for power, backed by the United Arab Emirates, in attempt to fill the vacuum of power.
