Journalists in Yemen have been subjected to thousands of violations since the start of the seven-year war, including 49 killings.
Today, Tuesday, 33 Yemeni non-governmental organisations issued a joint statement stressing that press freedoms in the country are being subjected to an “unprecedented and terrible elimination”.
“While the world is seeking to hold accountable the perpetrators of violations against journalists; There have been nearly three thousand violations against freedom of the press and expression in Yemen during the past seven years”.
The statement added that “many Yemeni cities have turned into areas of the one voice, in absence of the media diversity that the country enjoyed before in many cities.”
The statement called for “the need to prosecute the perpetrators of violations against journalists, in conjunction with the International Day to End Impunity.”
For more than seven years, Yemen has been witnessing a war that resulted in the killing of more than 233,000 people, and 80% of the population (30 million people) has become dependent on aid to survive in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the United Nations.
The conflict is further complicated by the involvement of regional parties since March 2015, where an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been carrying out military operations in support of government forces against the Iranian-backed Houthis, who control several governorates, including the capital, Sanaa.
Recently, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a tweet that “there are more than 2.6 million displaced people (out of 4 million) in Yemen, facing food shortages.”
The ongoing war in Yemen has displaced more than 4 million people, most of whom are women and children, according to UN reports.
