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Yemen, the conflict rages on

 Destroyed buildings in local village within the Marib district, Yemen Destroyed buildings in local village within the Marib district, Yemen Photo by Dinos Michail on iStock.

23 March 2021 

Yemen continues to face hunger, violence, and insufficient international assistance.

As the conflict in Yemen approaches its 7th year, the light at the end of the tunnel is still yet to appear l. Famine-like conditions, civilian casualties, and mediocre cooperation from world leaders have subdued Yemen into an incomprehensible humanitarian disaster. These six prolonged years of armed conflict have robbed the future of an entire Yemeni generation while completely stifling any chances of human development in the gulf nation for the foreseeable future. 

Furthermore, humanitarian experts predict that the conflict has not even yet hit rock bottom. If the violence continues in hotspots within the country, hundreds of thousands will have to flee their homes, go hungry, and risk the awful conditions that await them in refugee camps.  In 2019 alone, the conflict had claimed about 400,000 civilian casualties, with a  lack of access to food, healthcare, proper infrastructure, as well as direct armed hostilities all holding some responsibility. 

According to Jan Egeland, the Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), these issues need to be handled via three core strategic solutions. The first being to revamp the ongoing peace talks and ensure that they follow through.  Recent conversations have stalled, rekindling new violent hotspots in Marib, Hodeidah, Taiz, and Hajjah. This has led to an increase in the number of IDPs, vast civilian casualties, and gruesome attacks on homes, farms, hospitals, and schools.

The second task at hand is to push for a famine-prevention ceasefire. Doing so will facilitate the creation of humanitarian channels that can provide a consistent food supply to the most vulnerable populations. Lastly, Egeland argues that to achieve the first two objectives, the international community needs to send more aid to Yemen, as the current figures are not enough to attain meaningful or resounding breakthroughs.

 

To learn more, please read:

https://www.nrc.no/news/2021/march/yemen-conflict-six-years-close-to-700000-people-forecast-to-flee-their-homes-this-year/

https://www.aljazeera.com/where/yemen/

 

Author: Sergio Gomez; Editor: Xavier Atkins; Translator:Ester Zangrandi

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