A girl carries her brother at a camp for people displaced by the war near Sanaa, Yemen. (Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)
People in Yemen were in crisis before a missile launched by Houthi rebels landed near Riyadh last month.
The Houthi control the nation's west. They're backed by Iran, though that country denies that it's providing them weapons. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has been trying to knock them from power for years. To that end, the coalition has dropped thousands of bombs on Yemen. At least 10,000 Yemeni civilians have been killed.
Things only got worse after the missile. Saudi Arabia imposed a near-total blockade on Yemen, making it impossible for food, water and fuel to pass through. That would be a challenge in any poor, war-torn country heavily dependent on aid. In Yemen, where 90 percent of all goods are imported, it's a catastrophe.
[Yemen is on the brink of a horrible famine. Here’s how things got so bad.]
Even before the blockade, 17 million people did not know where their next meal was coming from. Seven million are entirely reliant on food assistance. Famine is looming. Highly treatable, waterborne diseases are rampant. A child dies every 10 seconds in Yemen, according to UNICEF.
Last week, after an international outcry, Saudi Arabia relaxed that blockade. Aid deliveries were allowed to two rebel-held sea and air ports. Since then, the BBC reports, only a handful of flights and ships have arrived. Some carried thousands of pounds of flour. Another brought aid workers and vaccines.
It's better than nothing. But aid groups say it's not nearly enough. They warn that unless Saudi Arabia permits commercial shipments of fuel and food immediately, millions of people will starve.
“To feed the 7 million people suffering severe famine, we need this kind of access on a regular basis, as we had before November 5,” Abeer Etefa, a senior coordinator for the World Food Program, told CNN. “We are hoping that commercial ships carrying food will also be allowed access to Yemen's ports soon, as the country imports 90 percent of its food and this is the only way to end the famine.”
.@UNICEF’s chartered flight just brought in over 15 tonnes of the most needed lifesaving Penta, BCG and PCV vaccines to protect about 600k children from diphtheria, tetanus, etc. The needs are huge and there is much more to do for#YemenChildren.
#Yemenhttp://pic.twitter.com/ezgGKQ1gi6— UNICEF Yemen (@UNICEF_Yemen) November 25, 2017
The lack of fuel is also a major problem.
Yemenis rely, overwhelmingly, on pumps to coax clean water out of the ground. Those pumps need fuel to run. Nine cities ran out of clean water because of the blockade; more than 2. 5 million people are without reliable access to clean water.
The International Committee of the Red Cross just Thursday bought 750,00 liters of diesel fuel to help provide clean water. Middle East regional director Robertyo Mardini wrote on Twitter that the organization is “not supposed to do this,” adding “fuel imports must resume.”
The Red Cross said its supplies will allow water systems in Hudaydah and Taiz to run for a month.
[Yemen’s man-made catastrophe has no end in sight]
Unsanitized water will also make it nearly impossible to stem the worst cholera outbreak in history. Nearly a million people have contracted the waterborne disease, and 2,000 people have died.
from WorldViews http://ift.tt/2AKohoq
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