YEMEN: SILENTLY SUFFERING

Coming up to nearly three years now, the bloody war in Yemen has still not come to an end. It's people and land has been neglected by governments, ignored by humanity, and whilst the rest of the world sits by idly, the people of Yemen are still silently suffering.

Before the war, Yemen was still one of the poorest and least developed countries in the Middle East, and recent events have completely destroyed the country altogether, some naming it the biggest humanitarian crisis since 1945, with over 13 million people on the brink of starvation.
It is unfortunate and unfair that a political dispute between the Saudi government and the Houthi rebels have led to the Yemenis being killed off, dropping off one by one like flies, experiencing the most painful forms of death, including cholera, malnutrition and severe injuries caused by airstrikes and bombings initiated by the Saudi led coalition. The Saudi government has assembled a party of countries, including Gulf countries, like Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, who have all contributed a number of fighter jets. Oman is the only member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) who did not join the coalition. Not only this, but two big powers the US and UK have also contributed considerably to this, the UK having given Saudi Arabia more than £3 billion worth of weapons since they began to attack Yemen, which includes bombing of several transport links, and numerous schools and medical centres,whilst some say the US tax dollars are the biggest enabler of this crisis. Recently however, both the US and UK are calling for a ceasefire, or to plan some peace talks. Karen Pierce, the UK ambassador to the UN said,'Yemen was a man made crisis, and what man has created, man can resolve.'

The Saudi government claim they are not the enemy is this nasty conflict, declaring all this violence is meant for the Houthis. The Houthis are a Shi'ah rebel group based in Yemen, who are backed by Iran against the Saudi led coalition who backs the Sunni president of Yemen. However, although, the Saudi's have inflicted a world of violence and pain on Yemen, the Houthi's have also fought back and their first attack which was on November 4 2017, was on Riyadh Airport, jeopardising many innocent civilians. The Saudis in response to this, tightened the blockade on Yemen even more. In addition, a naval blockade by the Saudi coalition is in place to stop Houthis importing weapons from Iran but naturally this has had an affect on all other shipments, including aid supplies, which the people of Yemen are in desperate need of. It has only been recently, after attention was turned on the Saudi government, after they were accused of assassinating Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, that there may now be peace talks from both sides, and it seems as if there may actually be a solution to the violence in Yemen.

Even before the war, 90% of Yemen's food was imported, and one of the main ports, the port of Hudaydah, located on the Red Sea, was heavily bombed by the Saudi led coalition. According to RT, ten thousand have died from illness directly due to the Saudi blockade which prevents medicine and food from entering, and traps the sick from leaving, whilst 42,000 are injured. In one documentary I watched, a family explained that they hadn't eaten meat or vegetables in a year, and even on a daily basis, food is a luxury for many families around them. 18 million people in Yemen are food insecure, and don't know when and where their next meal is coming from, whilst three quarters of the population (more than 22 million) are in desperate need of humanitarian aid and protection- according to the United Nations.



These pictures are just a representation of what most Yemeni children look like. As you can see, they merely have skin and bones, and as the days drag by and the few hospitals that are left overflow with people, with not enough beds to accommodate everyone, and not enough medicine to save everyone, these children slowly deteriorate. There are 2.9 million children and women that are acutely malnourished; the number of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition has increased 90% in the last three years. 
More than half of the population do not have access to basic healthcare,less than 50% of health facilities are functioning, and within the next decade, they're expected to completely run out of water, which highlights what the people of Yemen are dealing with.
'In one hospital I visited in north Yemen, the babies were too weak to cry, their bodies exhausted by hunger,' said Thorning Schmidt, former president of Denmark. Many mothers are also acutely malnourished, hence they are unable to breastfeed their babies, and have no other choice but to give them powdered milk which then also leads to other diseases.

Not only are they suffering from malnutrition, but they are also victims of the worst cholera epidemic where nearly 30% are children. Half a million are suffering from cholera, and any food or water that they consume just passes straight through their system, hence they gain no nutrients from it.
The Russian Times spoke to Riyaz Karim, a co founder of the Mona Relief organisation, which provides aid to vulnerable communities in Yemen. He said,' The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is beyond comprehension at this point. I don't think the world actually knows the severity of what is actually going on in Yemen. When you take an entire country that is 90% dependent on foreign imports to sustain itself and put it under a blockade for almost 3 years that country is basically going to come to it's needs.'



Mr Karim isn't the only one who feels this way. Just a few weeks ago, Angelina Jolie (who is the high commissioner for refugees) recently at UNHCR's office in the Republic of Korea, called for an urgent ceasefire to end the bitter conflict in Yemen. 'As an international community we have been shamefully slow to act to end the crisis in Yemen. We have watched the situation deteriorate to the point that Yemen is now on the brink of man-made famine, facing the worst cholera epidemic in decades. When conflict  develops to this extent, many people have no choice but to flee if they are to have any chance of survival. The only way to enable refugees to return home, and to bring down overall numbers worldwide, is to end conflict themselves.'

So you see, it's clear that this crisis is real, although invisible to the world, it is real. I find it imperative that as we live our fast busy lives, filled with materialism and comfort, we should occasionally spare a few thoughts for our Yemeni family, amongst our other thoughts about the most trivial things, like fashion, Internet trends and games. I acknowledge that (we) the public don't hold much power and control over this direly brutal conflict. We don't have the power to march up to the Saudi government, demand them to stop bullying Yemen, and give them billions of pounds to rebuild their torn country. Nevertheless, what we can do, is do our part, which I have categorised into three sections: praying, raising awareness, and giving. Make dua with all of your heart for these people, and not just for them, but also ask God to soften the hearts of the tyrants inflicting this pain. Second, you can raise awareness on this issue, via social media, and also by speaking to family members and friends who you think may not have much knowledge about what is going on in Yemen, and I guess you can't really blame them as the media coverage Yemen gets is ridiculous. Donating money is probably the most effective and helpful way to ease their suffering, even a little. No donation is small in the eyes of God and whether it's five pounds, or fifty pounds, your intention behind why you are giving it is so important in the eyes of God. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said "Charity does not decrease wealth, no one forgives another except that God increases his honour, and no one humbles himself for the sake of God except that God raises his status."

It is unfortunate that as an international community, we have failed to see what is lying right in front of us: a mixture of violence, pain, loss and suffering that has been inflicted upon the innocent nation of Yemen. Where have our hearts gone? Do we not feel what we are supposed to feel when we see innocent civilians desperately fighting for their lives, as abrasive tyrants rip them to shreds? The only thing that makes us different to them, is wealth, and the luck of fate of being brought up in a more economically developed country. They have the same needs, dreams and functions as us. They want to eat when their stomach churns with hunger, they want to drink water when their croaky throats suffer from thirst, they want to relieve themselves, they want medical attention, they want to fulfill their future aspirations- just like us! At the end of the day, we all have two eyes, a nose, hands, a body and our hearts beat the same. As we sleep soundly in our beds, roam around freely on the streets, and as they say 'shop till we drop,' they lie awake at night in fear of invasion, eat what they can find off the floor, and wait around in crumbling medical centres for help that never comes.
This crime is an unforgivable act against humanity and something needs to be done to help these people, before we completely lose our sympathy, our hearts, and our morals.