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14 Million Yemenis, Like the Little Girl Yousra Melkat, on the Brink of Famine Due to War

November 12, 2018 

Yousra Melkat, a Yemeni little girl, representing millions of children victims of war on Yemen, November 11, 2018

 

Yousra Is Just One of Millions of Yemeni Children Suffering From War

Nov 11, 2018, YemenExtra, SH.A.

Cancer has already cost Yousra the sight in her left eye and there are fears the disease is spreading. The malnourished eight-year-old is just one of millions of children suffering in the devastating human tragedy happening across Yemen. International pressure is growing to end the four-year war, which has now brought 14,000,000 people to the brink of famine.

However until the ceasefire, innocent children like Yousra Melkat will continue to suffer. More than half of the health centres in the war-stricken country lie empty, many destroyed by air strikes.

The Yemeni government hasn’t paid its civil servants for years and so most of the trained doctors have left. Yousra developed cancer three years ago when she was five years old but her family cannot afford treatment. She is cared for by her mother Hayat while her father earns less than 30p a day recycling plastic bottles.

Yousra received chemotherapy at a hospital in the capital of Sana’a. However doctors want her to travel abroad where scans can be done to see if the cancer has spread to her brain or other parts of the body.

Hayat Ali Melkat said: ‘We’ve been told there’s no cure for her here. ‘Before the war we could have found somebody to help but now, because most of the people are suffering, there’s no-one to help us.’ The International Rescue Committee want Yousra to head for treatment in Jordan but it is dependent on the Saudi’s giving them permission to travel out of Yemen.

They also need to raise money for her treatment and accommodation. Her case comes after the death of Amal Hussain – the starving little girl who became the face of the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

Marcus Skinner, senior policy advisor on Yemen at the IRC, told Metro.co.uk: ‘The war has had a devastating impact on Yemen’s children. ‘The world was shocked by pictures of Amal Hussain, but the horrific reality is that Amal represents a generation of children whose lives are being destroyed by the war. ‘Even those who can be saved by humanitarian aid face a difficult future.

Experts say there have been war crimes happening on both sides. Saudi Arabia has come under heavy criticism in recent months, with experts saying some 49% of air strikes have hit non-military targets.

Last week, the UN warned of an ‘imminent catastrophe’ saying 14,000,000 are at risk of starvation in the coming months  half of the population.

UNHCHR calls for the ending of the military escalation on Hodeidah, Yemen welcomes

Nov 11, 2018, YemenExtra, M.A.

Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf welcomed the summon of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michel Bachelet, to immediately end the military escalation in Hodeidah province and take immediate steps to end the suffering of civilians and respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

The Foreign Minister also welcomed the call by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) upon the Saudi-led coalition to immediately remove the restrictions and creating a safe and rapid path for the entry of indispensable humanitarian supplies and other goods, recalling the obligation of all States to take measures to ensure respect for the Geneva Conventions by the parties participating in the conflict to establish conditions or limit or prevent the transfer of arms to clashing zones.

The minister renewed the invitation of Bashlit to visit Yemen to fully understand the truth about who is behind the brutal crimes against the Yemeni people, who are with no doubt are being committed by the countries participating in the Saudi-led coalition that has been going on for nearly four years.

The foreign minister said in a statement to Saba news agency that the military escalation in Hodeidah by the Saudi coalition will lead to a major humanitarian disaster and undermine the peace efforts of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to Yemen.

He affirmed the Republic of Yemen’s commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights, respect for the international humanitarian law.

The Foreign Minister reiterated the readiness of the National Salvation Government to participate in peace talks under the auspices of the United Nations to achieve a just and honorable peace, which preserves the unity of Yemen and the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.

Minister Sharaf again called for the formation of an independent international commission of inquiry to investigate violations and crimes committed against the people of Yemen, end impunity and bring justice to the victims.

Many people around the globe have raised demonstrations to condemn the Saudi war on Yemen, latest of which was in Brussels, where more than a hundred Yemeni citizens living there participated in the demonstration and chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia and the Arab coalition, carrying  photos of victims of Yemen’s war called for a cessation of the war.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had previously announced since June nearly half a million Yemenis have been forced to leave their homes in Hodeidah.

Earlier this year in a report to the UN Security Council, Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs warned that Yemen is on the brink of famine.

The United Nations has also warned that more than three million people are at risk of hunger due to the depreciation of the Yemeni Rial.

Since March 2015, a coalition of several Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia and the go-ahead and assistance from the United States launched assaults on impoverished Yemen under the pretext of restoring power to the ousted Riyadh-friendly president Mansour Hadi.

Over the past three and a half years, the Saudi incursion has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people, displacing a million others and razing the Arab nation to the ground.

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The following news stories are from the Yemeni pro-Saudi website Al-Sahwa ( http://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/  ):

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Government employee assassinated in Aden

Sahwa, 11/11/2018 8:46:00 PM الصحوة نت - خاص

Alsahwa Net- Unknown gunmen assassinated today, Sunday, an employee of the Central Organization for Control and Audit Tahir Abdul-Jabar in the city of Aden.

Local sources affirmed that Abdul-Jabar was shot dead and the perpetrators managed to escape.

Aden is has been witnessing  a wave of assassinations against activists of, mosque preachers, government soldiers and political activists. All the assassination cases remain an unresolved mystery since no one case was investigated into or any arrests in connection with the crime were made.        

It is widely feared that extremists could be behind the assassinations of mainstream clerics to create a vacuum for extremist preachers.

Yemen main political parties had  strongly condemned the crimes against civilians in Aden and other southern governorates, affirming  that such acts risk security and public order and hold Aden’s security authorities fully responsible for maintaining security, protecting civilians, pursuing perpetrators of assassinations and bring them to justice to be punished.

They further called on the Interior Ministry to do its duties, integrate security services and unite them under the command of the state, urging all security services to be in side of the legitimate government, protect the temporary capital of Aden and put an end to all violence and repression.

 “Aden must be the city of coexistence to all Yemenis and an exemplary model to all other Yemeni liberated areas. All Yemenis look forward to see Aden as the city of peace, political pluralism and varying culture, and free of hatred and  all forms of intolerance,” they added.

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The following news stories are from the pro-Houthi website Yemen Extra (http://www.yemenextra.net/):

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The losses amid the Saudi-led coalition at the hands of the Yemeni army forces

Nov 11, 2018, YemenExtra, Y.A

The Sniping Unit of the Yemeni army forces revealed on Friday the number of the Saudi-led coalition, backed by the US, soldiers and paid fighters that were killed and wounded in its operations in various fronts the last week.

A source in the Sniping Unit said that “more than 235 paid fighters were killed and wounded, including Saudi soldiers, during successful operations in various fronts during the last week.”

Over 879 paid fighters were killed and wounded during sniping operations in various fronts on October.

In March 2015, the US -backed –Saudi-led coalition started  a war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over 60,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and  prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.

Despite the coalition claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has triggered what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

However, Saudi Arabia relies heavily on the US in its brutal war on Yemen. Washington has deployed a commando force on the Arab kingdom’s border with Yemen to help destroy arms belonging to Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement. Washington has also provided logistical support and aerial refueling.

Coalition’s Escalation on Western Coast Impedes Peace Efforts in Yemen: Ministry of Human Rights

Nov 11, 2018, YemenExtra, SH.A.

Ministry of Human Rights said that Saudi-led coalition’s military escalation on western Coast of Yemen is a strategy that impedes peace in Yemen.

In a statement, the Ministry said that the Saudi-led coalition’s indiscriminate military actions on the West Coast are obstacles to international efforts sought by the UN envoy.

It confirmed that the countries of the Saudi-led coalition do not have religious, human values and ethics because they are working to target civilians, roads, markets and hospitals with dozens of air raids and missiles which have resulted in human casualties.

The statement warned the coalition against any attack on Hodeidah port, which is a lifeline for millions of Yemenis.

The international community and the United Nations are responsible for the Saudi-led coalition military escalation on the West coast, the statement read.

It called on the United Nations and the Security Council to preserve international peace and security from any threats that destabilize the security of the whole world.

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