Yemen is facing a triple tragedy: the spectre of famine, the world’s largest cholera outbreak and daily deprivation and injustice. The seasonal flooding combined with a heatwave has led to an increase in the rate of cholera infection since mid-August.
Serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law are being committed with impunity. The Saudi-led coalition has conducted scores of unlawful airstrikes that have killed and injured thousands, targeting schools, markets, hospitals and homes, while Houthi rebels have indiscriminately shelled civilian residential areas. Child soldiers are being recruited, human rights activists are routinely oppressed. [...]
The international airport in Sanaa has been kept closed by the Saudi-led coalition for over a year now, preventing the delivery of food and medical supplies inland, and also stopping sick and wounded Yemenis from being treated abroad.
Hudaydah, Yemen’s busiest port, has been bombed beyond use or repair. When new cranes were donated by the US government to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) last December to deliver food aid, they were stopped at sea by the coalition and refused entry which further placed hundreds of Yemeni children’s lives at risk. [...]
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman donated $66.7 million in aid this year to respond to the outbreak of cholera in Yemen.
The US provides the Saudis with air-to-air refuelling and intelligence used for airstrikes and a bulk of their weapons. In May this year the two nations signed an arms deal amounting to almost $110 billion.
Meanwhile in Britain, the government approved £283 million of arms sales to Saudi Arabia just six months following the Saudi airstrike on a funeral which killed 140 people and injured hundreds more. Since the beginning of the Yemeni bombing campaign in 2015, the UK has licensed over £3.3 billion worth of arms to Saudi forces.
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