Virtually blacked out of American and western news media is the ongoing Saudi Arabian slaughter and destruction of Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, which began in March 2015.
The United States has fully supported the Saudi war effort in Yemen by supplying weapons (along with the UK and France), intelligence, and commandos in an effort to force regime change of the Houthis currently in power.
In 2014, the Houthis overthrew the Saudi-friendly, unelected government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in the “September 21 Revolution.” The revolt was sparked following Hadi’s threat to remove fuel subsides, which would have plunged hundreds of thousands of Yemeni citizens deeper into poverty.
Last Saturday, Houthis claimed they were responsible for shooting down a Saudi Arabian warplane. In response, the Saudis launched a retaliatory air strike, killing over 30 civilians and seriously wounding dozens more.
Lise Grande, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, said, “So many people are being killed in Yemen – it’s a tragedy and it’s unjustified… Five years into this conflict and belligerents are still failing to uphold this responsibility. It’s shocking. Under international humanitarian law parties which resort to force are obligated to protect civilians.”
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: As reported in the Trends Journal, the Saudi-led Yemen War has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Since 2015, the Saudi coalition, backed by billions of dollars of U.S. military aid, started an ongoing air attack on both military and civilian targets in an attempt to push back territorial and political gains of the Houthi movement in Yemen.
According to the UN, over 100,000 Yemenis have been killed and some fourteen million are at risk of starvation, while roughly 80 percent of the country’s 24 million people are dependent on humanitarian aid.
Dengue fever is also rampant, and the country confronts the worst cholera epidemic on record, with an estimated 1.2 million infected and at least 2,500 deaths, many of them children. Yet, this is barely reported, and there are no major movements to end the carnage among western political parties, organizations, and/or religious institutions.
Furthermore, the United Nations has approved not a single resolution condemning the mass murder and destruction carried out by the Saudis and its allies.
