16 Million Yemenis Marching toward Starvation

The crisis in Yemen, now in its seventh year of war, continues unabated, with thousands of people displaced and millions “a step away from starvation”, the UN Humanitarian Relief Coordinator said on Wednesday during a high-level side event on the margins of the 76th UN General Assembly.

“We're literally looking at 16 million people marching toward starvation,” Beasley, director of the UN’s World Food Program told the virtual gathering of aid and development ministers aimed at raising much-needed funds for providing Yemenis with food, fuel and medicine, according to the National News.

“We need this war to end, number one. If donors are getting fatigued, well, end the war. The world leaders need to put pressure on all parties involved in this conflict because the people in Yemen have suffered enough.”

Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and regional allies, launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah resistance movement.

Yemeni armed forces and allied Popular Committees have, however, gone from strength to strength against the Saudi-led invaders, and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.

Muhsin Siddiquey, the Yemen director for the Oxfam charity, said 99 per cent of Yemenis had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 as the country battled a deadly third wave of infections.

“Vaccination is a simple solution that would save lives, but the international community is failing the people of Yemen who need doses now,” Siddiquey said before the meeting.

“We need the vaccines that have been promised but it is also shameful that having bought up all the vaccines for themselves, rich countries like the UK and Germany are blocking the solutions.”

In Yemen on Tuesday, thousands of people rallied in the capital Sanaa to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the September 21 Revolution and removal of the Saudi-backed government, as the country’s forces pushed through front lines in oil-producing regions of the country.

A vast crowd of people thronged Sanaa's central public squares waving the red, white and black national colors, and chanting slogans against Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US. Some carried signs that read “Death to America".

Houthi official Khaled Al Madani told the cheering crowd that it was the anniversary of “freedom and independence”. Other rallies also were held in northern strongholds, including Saada, Hudaydah and Emran.

Meanwhile, the country’s forces gained ground in the Marib region in north Yemen, and the southern area of Shabwa, military officials told Reuters. Both areas are crucial to the country’s oil and gas industry.

The Saudi war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions more. The war has also destroyed Yemen's infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases across the Arab country.