Women Nobel laureates have demanded that Yemen's blockade be ended by the Saudi and Emirate-led military coalition. Its "collective punishment" has put 7 million children and women near famine, they say.
November 21: a boy being treated in Sanaa but so far few supplies have arrivedImage: Reuters/K. Abdullah
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The Nobel Women's Initiative, an Ottawa-based group, on Monday demanded that Saudi Arabia and its allies end their humanitarian blockade on war-torn Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country.
Their call coincided with a first food shipment arrival in the Houthi rebel-held Red Sea port of Saleef on Monday, after medical supply flights into Sanaa over the weekend, but UN officials warned that civilian needs remained immense.
The coalition tightened its blockade on Yemeni ports and airports on November 6 when a missile attributed to the rebels was intercepted near Riyadh airport. Last week, Saudi Arabia's UN mission said it would respond to international pleas.
In their Monday appeal, the women laureates said that "vulnerable and innocent civilians" were being denied access to food, fuel and medical supplies, aggravating what the United Nations had called the "worst humanitarian crisis to date."
Weekend deliveries to Sanaa, but much more is neededImage: Reuters
The six former Nobel laureates behind the appeal were Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland, Rigoberta Menchú Tum of Guatemala, Jody Williams of the United States, Shirin Ebadi of Iran, Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia.
They condemned violations and crimes perpetrated on civilians by "all parties in the current conflict," explicitly including Iran — thought to support the Houthi rebels.
The blockade was denying "live-saving" humanitarian assistance to more than 20 million people, the initiative said, including "at least 7 million — mostly children and women — close to famine.
The laureates called on the international community, specifically the UN Security Council, to "take urgent action to protect civilians, and bring all perpetrators to international justice."
On Sunday, the regional head of the child agency UNICEF, Geert Cappelaere, said Yemeni children afflicted by preventable diseases were dying at a rate of one every 10 minutes.
Weekend deliveries of vaccines against diphtheria, meningitis, whopping cough, pneumonia and tuberculosis must not be a "one-off," said Cappelaere.
"The absence of a political solution to the Yemeni crisis is deplorable," he said.
Yemen's three-year-long war, which has left 27 million people facing food insecurity, is widely seen as the product of the rivalry between regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Iran that has also fueled conflicts elsewhere, including Syria.
For nutrition, Yemenis are highly dependent on imported wheat. Aid groups warn that humanitarian deliveries cover only a small part of what is required.
ipj/msh (AFP, dpa, AP)
Yemen: An ever-worsening crisis
Yemen has struggled to cope with crises prompted by its atrocious civil war, including catastrophic hunger and devastating cholera outbreaks. DW examines the conflict and how it affects the country's civilian population.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
War: The 'root cause' of Yemen's disasters
The UN has identified conflict as the "root cause" of Yemen's crises. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war erupted in 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels launched a campaign to capture the capital, Sanaa. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched a deadly campaign against the rebels, one that has been widely criticized by human rights groups for its high civilian death toll.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Fighting keeps food from the famished
The conflict has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching large parts of the civilian population, resulting in more than two-thirds of the country's 28 million people being classified as "food insecure." Nearly 3 million children and pregnant or nursing women are acutely malnourished, according to the UN World Food Program.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Displacement: Converging crises
More than 3 million people have been displaced by conflict, including marginalized communities such as the "Muhammasheen," a minority tribe that originally migrated from Africa. Despite the civil war, many flee conflict in Somalia and head to Yemen, marking the convergence of two major migration crises in the Middle East nation. Yemen hosts around 250,000 Somali refugees, according to UNHCR.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Cholera: A deadly epidemic
The number of suspected cholera cases has exceeded more than 2 million and least 3,700 people have died from the waterborne bacterial infection in Yemen since October 2019, said the WHO. Although cholera can be easily treated, it can kill within hours when untreated.
Image: Reuters/K. Abdullah
Unsuspecting victims of the'war on terror'
In Yemen, violence goes beyond civil conflict: It is considered a strategic front in the war on terrorism. The country serves as the operational base for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, dubbed the "most dangerous" terrorist group before the rise of the "Islamic State." The US routinely uses drones to target al-Qaida leadership. However, civilians have often been killed in the operations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Y. Arhab
Children's fate: Future marred by tragedy
In a country paralyzed by conflict, children are one of the most at-risk groups in Yemen. More than 12 million children require humanitarian aid, according to the UN humanitarian coordination agency. The country's education system is "on the brink of collapse," while children are dying of "preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory tract infections," according to the agency.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Peace: An elusive future
Despite several attempts at UN-backed peace talks, the conflict continues to rage on. Saudi Arabia has vowed to continue supporting the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. On the other hand, Houthi rebels have demanded the formation of a unity government in order to move forward on a political solution. A peace deal, however, remains elusive.
