In Yemen a third of children under five are suffering from acute malnutrition with almost 50,000 dying last year from extreme hunger and disease. And the situation has worsened since then, with a humanitarian co-ordinator saying nearly 14 million people are in danger of famine which was “much bigger than anything any professional in this field has seen during their working lives.”
Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition sent by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman intervened, after the rebel Houthi movement seized control and forced the President to flee abroad. A partial blockade by the coalition has left 22 million people in need of humanitarian aid, creating the world’s largest food security emergency, and it led to a cholera outbreak that has affected 1.1 million people.
The Yemen Republic chart 22 May 1990 has been under acute pressure since the tr Uranus square tr Pluto started to move in hard aspect to its Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn from 2012 onwards, worsening when their Neptune was devastated around the time of the Saudi intervention. There’s nothing that looks cheerful in the immediate future. Tr Pluto will sextile the Mars in 2019/2020 for more brutality; tr Pluto is also moving across the midpoints to Saturn in Capricorn for hardship and deprivation up till late 2022/23.
If the furore over Jamal Khashoggi’s murder does nothing else one might have hoped for a change of attitude from a humbled Saudi Arabia. They didn’t start the civil war but everything that has been done since 2015 has made a bad situation irretrievably worse.
What stands out in my retired mind is Biafra from the 1960s. News paper front page coverage of stick-think children; don;t recall much that came from the rescue effort. The starvation events only repeat – but nothing changes. Guess starving children are only collateral damage post billion- dollar arms sales.
Sorry – should be “stick thin children”
If only an emaciated Yemen child might get as much press coverage as the
somewhat well-fed, late Khashoggi, but that’s probably asking too much. The USA has
provided Saudis with a great deal of weapons, training, etc., so there is plenty
of blame to go around. Khashoggi’s uncle Adnan was at one time, the worlds’
largest arms dealer. Somehow I don’t see USA’s current administration ceasing to
sell weapons to the Saudis, and Turkey just fans the flames of the late Ottoman empire.
What a world we have.
It’s a dreadful conclusion to arrive at but I honestly believe that large numbers of senior politicians genuinely do not care about famine killing children in Yemen or any other man made catastrophe, even if we the Brits are directly involved in its cause. Lip service, hand wringing and crocodile tears for public consumption then back to the troughing, scheming, expense fiddling, and personal self interest. Maybe I’m getting old and cynical but we are led by some really fourth rate and soulless w***rs these days. Has our defence minister Gavin Williamson, a random example, ever lost a wink of sleep over the hell he is personally helping to visit on those kids? Or Boris? The list goes on…
It is not just politicians who have behaved shamefully. Until Khashoggi disappeared the media was largely silent about events in the Yemen as well. I would have more time for mainstream outlets complaints about ‘fake news’ if I was not acutely aware that so often they choose not to report real news.
Hugh, for sure. The news outlets in turn are reluctant to displease their owners’ friends in the ME and beyond, or the lucrative advertising revenue they may lose from criticing certain people, places and policies. They swim together in that sense. The Rohinga humanitarian crisis in Myanmar was rightly covered every night on mainstream news in the UK, but never anything that lifted the lid on the horrors we were abetting in Yemen. Wonder why?
The horrific Yemeni conflict and crisis have received minimal coverage on the BBC and that’s being generous. Even now, post-Khashoggi, when the spotlight is pointing towards the dark deeds of Saudi, Yemen’s famine merits ne’er a mention, tucked away at the bottom of the Middle-Eastern section on their website. Meanwhile on their front page we are reassured that ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, BBC’s flagship Celebrity reality show will “not be affected by Brexit”. I’ve always been wary of criticism aimed at the BBC because I think they have a pretty tough remit in these times we live in, but on this issue – on their website at least – they have been nothing short of woeful.
Today the Times has reported that Prince Andrew (possible the most unpopular royal in the UK) has said he wants closer ties with Saudi Arabia and is eager to work with them. Not a whisper of this on the BBC of course.
Media reporting of far-off places is often quixotic. Mike Buerk’s BBC piece on the 1984 Ethiopia famine only happened because he was returning from a posting in South Africa (I think) and was told to pick up a story on the way home. It sparked off world wide attention and Bob Geldof picked it up and ran with it. But it could as easily have been missed. It was a sheer fluke. Or karma! And they were better budgeted in those days but cut backs to foreign reporting which is very expensive is fairly standard across the board.
The Brits should be more interested in Yemen than they seem to be since part of it was a British protectorate, which ended as I recollect in a horrible shambles.
The US have been in the Yemen since Obama’s time but the situation for the poor beleaguered population has worsened exponentially since the Saudi intervention in 2015 backed by United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, and Pakistan – and no doubt UK supplied weapons. And is generally seen as a proxy war with Iran – Shia v Sunni. Shades of Europe and centuries of RC v Protestant monarchs slogging it out for supremacy.
That’s interesting about Ethiopia. Amazing how that was achieved with the technology they had then compared to what’s available now. What were the logistics of reporting from Ethiopia in 1984? I’m imagining large equipment and cans of tape being transported back on long, complicated journeys.
This article from 2014 suggests the answer lies in a simplified message, which seems to be a bigger factor than technology https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/oct/22/ethiopian-famine-report-influence-modern-coverage
Tara, In 1984 they certainly had satellite for transmitting. Maybe not from a refugee camp or a mud hut, but the nearest town would have facilities. Pricey but it worked. And the new digital camera equipment was well in use which revolutionized everything. In the 1970s it had to be shot on film which was a faddle.
This is devastating! I know many people in The West are as troubled by this as I am (there’s a serious Ethiopia trigger in these images for many, including me), and thinking about what can they do here to help. My suggestion: Find out whether your country sells arms to Saudis. Saudis buy tons of them, and they tend to finish in Yemen. Find out if any organization has a petition going on for suspending arms export to Saudi Arabia, and sign. Find out if any political party is for suspending armstrade to them. Vote the party or parties who are committed to this. Find out if there’s a reputed NGO who have a plan for peace or at least humanitarian truce in Yemen and means to carry it out, and donate, if you can. But two first options are free, and effective in that political accountability still is a thing for most politicians (DJT is an outlier).
That’s a good suggestion. Several years ago I wrote to my then MP about arms sales and I have noticed he is now quite vocal on the issue in parliament and in the media. You always think that your letter will be just tossed in the bin, but just goes to show what happens if enough people write.