Yemen faces humanitarian disaster

The United Nations Organization has voiced deep concern over the situation in Yemen, where armed conflict, massacres by the US-Saudi-led coalition of murder and human rights abuses have caused at least 1,500 civilian deaths, 3,600 injuries and one million internally displaced persons or refugees in just three months. The hand behind the scenes?

Photo: AP Photo

The coalition of evil

Mention the United States of America and Saudi Arabia, and what is the result? The result is the question, so where are Qatar and Bahrein? And the answer to that question is yes, they are all four of them involved, together with, who else? Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates... Jordan? Yes of course. Let's guess...Morocco? Yes, and then Egypt and Sudan. The Gulf Cooperation Council and the North African pariahs complete with their American bedmaster.

Doing what? Why, bombing indiscriminately and murdering women and children, as usual. So after Operation Decisive Storm finished on April 21, Operation Restoring Hope continued to select civilian targets, such as Sana'a International Airport, strafing the runway so that an Iranian humanitarian cargo aircraft could not land and UNESCO World Heritage Sites at the Old City in Sana'a.

Bitter clashes on the ground

On the ground, the different sides in the conflict (pro-Hadi Coalition and pro-Saleh/Houthi faction) have been involved in bitter fighting, which alongside the murderous strikes by the Coalition of Evil, have led to a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, affecting mainly civilians. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has declared that between 17 June and 3 July there were at least 92 civilian casualties (including 18 women and 18 children dead) along with 179 injuries (including 43 women and 30 children). On top of this there are over one million displaced persons, either internally or forced to live as refugees abroad.

OHCHR spokesperson Cécile Pouilly states: "Since 17 June, coalition forces have continued aerial bombardment and other attacks. Ground clashes, shelling, sniper fire and detonation of improvised explosive devices have also been reported in different governorates in Yemen."

Human rights violations have been documented by OHCHR involving "all parties to the conflict", "including violations of the right to life, abduction, ill-treatment and attacks against humanitarian workers, journalists and media organizations" and additionally, "OHCHR has been closely monitoring attacks by the conflict parties against UN offices, citing an airstrike on 28 June that wounded one civilian and partially destroyed the UN Development Programme office in Khormaksar, Aden. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) was struck twice, once by a mortar in Basateen and again by an airstrike in Harad" according to the Organization.

The result of the violence on the ground and the inhumane terrorist airstrikes from the Coalition of Evil has resulted in a serious shortage of medicines as the country's healthcare network nears collapse and access to food and clean water is seriously reduced. For Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), "Clearly, there is a massive humanitarian crisis...in Yemen."

And why is it that time and time again, the hand of the United States of America is involved wherever there is a humanitarian crisis?

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru  

([email protected])

*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. He is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights.