Saudi Arabia, the United States, and their coalition have brought about the biggest humanitarian crisis in history—3000 days of hunger

The rate of malnutrition in Yemen has risen to six million cases.
Al-Slayder / Reports:

More than 2.3 million kids under the age of five are malnourished, and 632,000 of those kids are at risk of mortality due to severe acute malnutrition

34.3% of children who labor are between the ages of 5 and 17, and over 1.4 millions of these children are deprived of their basic rights

In many parts of the country, the shutdown of major ports has threatened a historic worsening in food security, reaching the level of famine (level 5 on the ABC scale)

On March 26, 2015, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded Yemen and imposed a siege that resulted in a true famine and the total cessation of economic activity. led to the halt of oil income as well, which had been sent to the accounts of the mercenaries’ government at the National Bank in Riyadh and had been responsible for 70% of the state’s budget. caused fuel shortages across the nation, which forced the closure of numerous big and small enterprises and resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Many businesses have stopped operating, fired staff members, and moved their capital abroad.
Al-Thawrah / Yahya Al-Rubaie

In a nation where imports supply 90% of its population’s food needs, Yemen’s purchasing power has plummeted as a result of the dramatic increase in import costs. More than 50% of Yemen’s population was estimated to be below the poverty line prior to the Arab coalition operations in March 2015, and 45% of them had worsening food security, according to a World Bank report. At present, Yemen suffers from a shortage of all essential goods, and more than 6 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine.

In the meantime, Ali al-Dailami, the Minister of Human Rights in the Rescue Government, criticized the international community’s role in Yemen, calling it weak and accusing it of complicity in humanitarian issues as well as systematic targeting under the supervision of the United Nations with regard to the siege on Yemen.

He stated, “First, the siege resulted in more than 600,000 deaths; this is called indirect targeting or indirect victims in health, malnutrition, or many other aspects, and eight years of aggression is a number burdened with much suffering for the Yemeni people.” Additionally, while discussing daily necessities, you are not referring to recreational things that were prohibited from entering Yemen but rather to necessities like food, medication, and oil derivatives because these three things are interconnected. He continued by saying that the country’s and the Yemeni people’s riches had been stolen as a result of the economic war. Additionally, there is an effort to use Yemen’s own funds to pay for the attack against Yemen and to provide local militias and mercenaries with funding to carry on the war.

He emphasized that while ending the war or military operations is a positive indicator, it is not sufficient and that putting conditions on or avoiding agreement execution are not effective ways to foster confidence. He continued, saying, “We cannot give up an inch, a point, or a fundamental issue of the country’s sovereignty or what concerns people and their lives, livelihoods, and economies.” He also said that the political and other files should not be mixed with the humanitarian and human rights file.

He pointed out that the role of the United Nations and international organizations is merely a review role that falls short of protecting people and civilians and falls short of the UN’s original goal. There is even UN complicity, and the international community plays a weak role in humanitarian affairs.

Aside from the millions of infants under the age of five and the hundreds of thousands of elderly people who are malnourished, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have indirectly died as a result of the aggression and siege on their country. Living in temporary camps with no services, the situation is further exacerbated. You will find tragedies when you want to enter and discuss the details of the matter.

The Entesaf Organization for Women’s and Children’s Rights declared that the aggression and siege have caused the education system to collapse, affecting more than six million students, while 196,197 teachers have not received regular pay since 2016, which exposes an additional four million children to the risk of losing their education. Six million students may have their schooling disrupted, and 8.1 million children nationwide require emergency educational assistance.

It added that of the 10.6 million children that are of school age, 2.4 million are not enrolled in school, and 31% of Yemeni girls are not in the educational system as a result of the deteriorating humanitarian situation and families’ inability to meet the necessities of a basic education. The rate of the deficit in printing school textbooks annually reached 56 million, 615 thousand, and 44 books.

It stated that this year, more than eight million women and girls require life-saving services, while six million children require some kind of humanitarian aid or protection. According to estimates, the poverty rate has increased to almost 80%, and more than eight out of every ten children now reside in families with insufficient income to cover their basic necessities.

It pointed out that with limited available housing options, displaced women and girls suffer the most due to the lack of privacy, threat to their safety, and restricted access to basic services, leaving them more susceptible to abuse and violence.

It also highlighted that one out of every three displaced households is headed by women, and that 21% of these households are provided by girls who are 18 years old or younger.

The organization pointed out the expansion of the phenomenon of child labor during the period of aggression, with rates that may exceed four times what they were before. 34.3% of children who labor are between the ages of 5 and 17, and over 1.4 millions of these children are deprived of their basic rights.

The organization recorded an increase in the number of people with disabilities from three million before the aggression to 5.5 million at the present, explaining that since the aggression’s start, about 6,000 civilians have become disabled as a result of armed hostilities, including about 5,559 children. It is anticipated that the actual figure will be significantly higher, and 16,000 women and children need physical rehabilitation.

Yemen has the highest rates of infant and child mortality in the Middle East, with 60 infants and children dying for every 1,000 live births and 52,000 child deaths annually, which means a child dies every ten minutes, according to the Entesaf organization.

The organization confirmed that the siege has contributed to an increase in malnutrition rates, which have risen in the past two years from 3.6 million people to six million, an increase of 66%.

More than 2.3 million kids under the age of five are malnourished, and this year, 632,000 of those kids are at risk of mortality due to severe acute malnutrition. In addition, malnutrition affects almost 1.5 million women who are pregnant and nursing, including 650,000 who have medium malnutrition.

The Human Development Index published by the United Nations Development Program places Yemen 154th out of 187 nations. 90% of Yemen’s food requirements are imported, and 45% of its wheat imports come from Russia and Ukraine. 80% of Yemen’s population, which is estimated at 32.6 million, relies on humanitarian assistance.

Yemen is one of the Middle East’s poorest nations, according to UN assessments, and is heavily dependent on imported food, medicine, and fuel. The importation of food, clothing, and medication accounts for between 80 and 90 percent of the country’s fundamental necessities.

There are also a lot of diseases that are common, such as diphtheria, which is usually treatable in most nations but is deadly in Yemen owing to the pressure of the siege, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds more. Around 16 million people lack access to clean water; it is estimated that around two million children are severely malnourished; and half of Yemen’s hospitals are shut down.

24 million Yemenis, or roughly 80% of the population, are estimated to need humanitarian aid between 2020 and 2021, according to reports on the country’s requirements. Absolute numbers in Yemen remain the highest, and the humanitarian response plan targeted 15.6 million people in Yemen in 2020, which is slightly less than half of the population. The relative scale also seems to suggest poorer circumstances in terms of the many demands that are prevalent internationally.

A naval and aerial blockade has been established on Yemen since the start of the Saudi-UAE-led, US-Zionist-backed aggression on Yemen on March 26, 2015, which has tightened restrictions on the delivery of food, fuel, and medicine to civilians in violation of international humanitarian law.

Yemenis are suffering from a humanitarian crisis as a result of the coalition’s 3,000-day blockade of the country, which the United States joined in October 2016 to support Saudi Arabia on all fronts, logistically and technically. The worst famine in history is what Yemen is currently experiencing, according to the United Nations.

The Saudi-led coalition approach in Yemen has repeatedly been connected to preventing aid and necessary supplies from reaching people, endangering millions of lives, according to James Ross, Director of the Law and Policy Department at Human Rights Watch. He urged the Security Council to swiftly impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia and coalition leaders in December 2017 for their role in obstructing the delivery of food, fuel, and medical supplies, which resulted in starvation, sickness, and death.

Reopening Yemen’s land, air, and seaports to commercial cargoes, which make up approximately 80% of all imports, was cited by Human Rights Watch as an important issue in any effort to address what the United Nations described as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on March 17, 2023, that it needed roughly $71 million to carry out its operations and address food insecurity in Yemen during the current year 2023. This is because millions of people in Yemen are still going hungry as a result of the ongoing conflict, for the ninth year in a row.

According to the international organization, in order to administer and offer humanitarian agriculture aid to 2.67 million people from January to December 2023, Yemen will need $71 million in funding.

The organization published a report in 2017 stating that officials in five hospitals in the provinces of Hudaydah, Taiz, and Sana’a confirmed that fuel shortages had “catastrophic” effects on the operation of four of the hospitals, including the two largest hospitals in Yemen, which had become completely reliant on fuel-operated generators and were providing services to thousands of people.

According to the report, the main hospitals in the capital city of Sana’a needed 60,000 liters of fuel each month to run their generators, produce oxygen, and drive ambulances and employee buses. The hospital’s water providers stopped supplying water to the facility on November 6, 2017, and they informed the facility that “it must provide them with fuel to get more water.”

The report stated, “The hospital’s director confirmed to the organization that the suppliers’ decision on November 6, 2017, caused great panic, and all our efforts were focused on finding the necessary diesel to operate the hospital.” “I have 105 patients in the intensive care unit on ventilators and vital sign monitors,” he continued. A disaster will happen if the hospital’s power supply is cut off.

The price of truck-delivered water has increased significantly, up to 600% in some locations, according to the United Nations, as a result of the spike in fuel expenses. About 17 million people in Yemen rely on commercial water or government water networks, some of which are shut down due to fuel shortages. The International Committee of the Red Cross stated that nine cities lacked the fuel needed to run water treatment plants in late November. To stop diseases like cholera from spreading through the water, it is necessary to provide clean water.

Food scarcity has also worsened as a result of the fuel shortage; residents had to spend their limited resources on water, which reduced their income for food purchases and, in the words of the UN, “led to an increase in the spread of food insecurity and famine. ” Fuel is needed to transport “the little remaining food in Yemen; otherwise, food will remain in warehouses while innocent people die of hunger nearby,” according to Oxfam.

The United States-funded famine research in Geneva, according to Reuters, warned that “thousands of Yemenis could die every day if a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia does not lift its blockade on the country’s ports.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross issued the warning after mentioning that 2.5 million people in Yemen’s packed cities lack access to clean water, raising the danger of cholera outbreaks.

According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which ranks degrees of food security using the globally recognized IPC five-point scale, 15 million people were already in “crisis” (Level 3 on the ABC scale) or worse before the siege.

Therefore, extending the main ports’ shutdown threatens to worsen food security in wide sections of the country to the point of famine (Level 5 on the ABC scale), it added.

If the ports stay blocked, “famine is likely to occur in many areas within three to four months, and some hard-to-reach areas are at greater risk,” the network continued.

As a result, costs will rise for food, fuel, and medicines, and the prevalence of deadly diseases will rise.

According to the network, which was established by the US Agency for International Development, “thousands of deaths will occur daily due to food shortages and the spread of diseases.”

The report added that all Yemeni ports must be opened for the importation of necessities and that famine is still a possibility even if the southern port of Aden is opened.

The Saudi-led coalition has been ordered by the UN to permit aid to travel through the Hudaydah port, which is under the control of the Houthis, whom Saudi Arabia is battling in the Yemen war.

While UN representatives have refrained from condemning Saudi Arabia directly, UN humanitarian agencies have issued strong warnings about the effects of the blockade.

The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, was outspoken in his condemnation, stating on Twitter that the US, UK, and other Saudi allies have only a few weeks to avoid causing a massive famine. Lift the blockade now.”

Last year, when sources informed Reuters that Riyadh threatened to reduce some of its contributions to the United Nations, then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed Saudi Arabia, saying it was applying “unacceptable” pressure to avoid being put on the list of nations that kill children in conflicts, but Saudi Arabia denied this.