The bombings in Yemen have entered their 8th year. Saudi and United Arab Emirates led blockade and bombing of Yemen have already caused death of more than 377,000 innocents. The United States supported campaign against. 16 million Yemenis are facing famine like situation and the situation is worsening as we speak. According to the United Nations secretary general Antonio Gutiérrez, the famine in Yemen is one of the worst in decades and the risk of large-scale famine has never been more acute. Last year alone when the world was reeling under the covid 19 pandemic, 2000 people were killed directly in the conflict. The already crushed health and other public services in the country cannot simply cater to the needs of the populace. Once a stable state, the country has been reduced to a ‘a special kind of hell’ to quote the UN secretary general. More than 100,000 women could die from pregnancy and childbirth complications. Millions of kids are going hungry every day, half of all those under five are malnourished.
400,000 children in Yemen need immediate relief from malnutrition, else they face the very real possibility of death from not just hunger but from preventable diseases like cholerae, diphtheria and measles. The mindless war has destroyed a whole generation. This year the United Nations attempted to raise some 3.85 billion USD to be used to aid the Yemenis, by the end of the day only 1.7 billion USD pledge was achieved. The international community, corporations and others do not seem to feel as strongly for the dying Yemenis as they do for other nations. The war in Ukraine further poses another risk to Yemenis. The war-torn country imports nearly 35 percent of its food grain supply from the two warring country. The new war is sure to leave its impact in Yemen. While there seems to be a never-ending supply of money to keep the war going, there is only the void when one looks for money to aid the dying people of Yemen.
It is perhaps another reminder how under capitalism, humanism goes for a toss. The kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the two main parties that are bombing Yemen under the garb of containing the Houthis, whom they accuse of being Irani stooges, are anti-democracy and have a history of human rights violation and crimes against humanity. They happen to be significant business partners of the United States, the patron of global freedom and democracy. The I scratch your back, you scratch mine benefits both sides, at the cost of lives of millions of Yemenis. The US provides these kingdoms the weapons they ultimately unleash upon the Yemeni populace. On 12th March this year, Saudi executed 81 people. One of the largest mass executions in history under modern penal system. Of the 81, 7 were Yemenis. 2 were prisoners of wars and 5 simply faced the accusation of criticising Saudi’s war on Yemen.
Even the UN on one hand shows sympathy with the people of Yemen, on the other acts as if it is an agent of the US. UNSC Resolution 2624, passed on 28th February 2022, designated the Houthi rebels as terrorist group and call for them to lay down their arms. According to the resolution cessation of hostilities would only mean Houthi rebels surrendering their activities and not Saudi ending its campaign in Yemen. No meaningful conflict resolution can take place when such one-sided stands are taken. History reminds us that under the US led/capitalist world order no meaningful conflict resolutions have happened especially in case of asymmetric conflict in the third world. We can take a slight sigh of relief in the fact that Ukraine is in Europe and Russia is an enemy state of the US. The people of Ukraine will in no imagination have to endure what the Yemenis have been.
