... Bildung im Jemen – Die vergessenen Flüchtlinge aus dem Jemen – Vereinbarung über Gefangenenaustausch zwischen Huthis und Hadi-Regierung – Die Schlacht um Marib – Häusliche Gewalt in Corona-Zeiten – und mehr
Oct. 1, 2020: UN report on Human Rights in Yemen – Appeal by Mwatana Human Rights – Evidence of a Saudi air raid – Houthi war crimes at Taiz –Education in Yemen – The forgotten Yemeni refugees – Prisoner swap deal between Houthis and Hadi government – The Marib battle –Domestic violence in Corona times – and more
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Kursiv: Siehe Teil 2 / In Italics: Look in part 2: https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-683b-yemen-war-mosaic-683b
Klassifizierung / Classification
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Coronavitrus und Seuchen / Most important: Coronavirus and epidemics
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp2a Allgemein: Saudische Blockade / General: Saudi blockade
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Separatisten und Hadi-Regierung im Südjemen / Separatists and Hadi government in Southern Yemen
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp9a USA-Iran Krise: Spannungen am Golf / US-Iran crisis: Tensions at the Gulf
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Kampf um Hodeidah / Hodeidah battle
cp19 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
pH = Pro-Houthi
pS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
Ältere einführende Artikel u. Überblicke für alle, die mit den Ereignissen im Jemen noch nicht vertraut sind, hier:
Yemen War: Older introductory articles, overviews, for those who are still unfamiliar with the Yemen war here:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-einfuehrende-artikel-u-ueberblicke
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
(** B H K P)
„Niemand hier hat saubere Hände“
Alle Kriegsparteien im Jemen verüben schwere Straftaten, schreiben UN-Experten in einem neuen Bericht. Die Menschenrechtlerin Melissa Parke fordert Rechenschaft.
Melissa Parke: Covid-19 ist verheerend, aber es gibt eine noch größere Pandemie, die den Menschen im Jemen Leid zufügt: die Straflosigkeit. Alle Konfliktparteien im Jemen verüben schwere Verletzungen der Menschenrechte und des internationalen Rechts, und zwar ohne Folgen für die Täter. Das ermutigt sie, weitere und noch schwerere Verletzungen zu begehen.
Um was für Taten geht es?
Um Luftangriffe und andere Bombardierungen, bei denen nicht unterschieden wird zwischen zivilen und militärischen Zielen. Um Landminen, willkürliche Festnahmen und Verschleppungen sowie um Folter und sexuelle Gewalt. Außerdem wird eine ganze Generation ihrer Bildung beraubt, indem Kinder rekrutiert werden, um sie in Kriegshandlungen einzusetzen.
Sie sagten, alle Konfliktparteien machten sich schuldig, Jemens Regierung also ebenso wie die Huthi-Rebellen, aber auch die mit der Regierung alliierte arabische Militärkoalition sowie die südjemenitischen Separatisten. Verwässert eine solche Aussage nicht wichtige Unterschiede?
Die einzigen Parteien im Jemen, die Flugzeuge am Himmel haben, sind die von Saudi-Arabien geführte Koalition sowie die Emirate. Alle Verletzungen im Rahmen von Luftangriffen gehen auf das Konto der Koalition. Landminen werden mehrheitlich von den Huthis eingesetzt und auch in Sachen Kinderrekrutierung werden die meisten Verletzungen von den Huthis begangen. Aber auch andere Parteien machen das. Alle Parteien wiederum verletzen das Recht auf Bewegungs- und Meinungsfreiheit, lassen Menschen verschwinden und begehen Folter. Es gibt keine Guten in diesem Konflikt, niemand hier hat saubere Hände.
Das Mandat Ihrer vom UN-Menschenrechtsrat eingesetzten Expertengruppe umfasst das Sammeln und Analysieren von Informationen. Wie gehen Sie dabei vor?
Dieses Jahr gab es viele Herausforderungen. Wir hatten kein Zutritt zum Jemen und zu den Ländern der Koalition und mussten mit Einschränkungen durch Covid-19 arbeiten. Unsere Feldbesuche mussten wir stark begrenzen und Interviews per Video führen. Aber wir konnten im Berichtszeitraum trotzdem mehr als 400 Interviews führen. Dazu haben wir Bestätigung über Satellitenbilder eingeholt. Ein Mitarbeiter wertet außerdem Äußerungen der Konfliktparteien in sozialen Medien aus.
https://taz.de/UN-Expertin-ueber-Krieg-im-Jemen/!5713074/
und auch https://parstoday.com/de/news/middle_east-i53865-uno_will_fall_jemen_an_istgh_überweisen
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UN Says Yemen’s Warring Parties Must Face Justice
A group of Eminent Experts on Yemen accuses Yemen’s warring parties of widespread violations, some amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. They are calling for an end to impunity and for perpetrators of these crimes to be brought to justice. The report has been submitted to the UN Human Rights Council.
For the second consecutive year, the Yemeni government and its Saudi-led coalition partners have refused to grant the Group of Experts entry into their countries. Nevertheless, the experts managed to gather a ream of evidence from more than 400 witnesses, victims and other sources through remote and secure channels.
What is eminently clear from their 152-page report is that no one in Yemen is safe; that no one has clean hands in this blood-soaked country; that direct warfare, along with hunger and disease, have claimed more than 100,000 civilian lives over the past six years.
“Airstrikes are being carried out by coalition forces without proper regard to the principles of distinction, proportionality and/or precaution…Both the Houthis and the Coalition forces are continuing to deploy indirect fire weapons, such as mortars and rockets, including in heavily populated areas," Jendoubi said, speaking through an interpreter. "These indiscriminate attacks are killing and wounding civilians and damaging critical infrastructure, such as health facilities.”
The report documents widespread, systematic violations including arbitrary detention, forced disappearance, torture, gender-based and sexual violence. It notes dissidents, human rights defenders and journalists are at particular risk. It finds boys and girls as young as seven are recruited into armed forces.
Jendoubi says the Group of Experts has identified potential perpetrators of crimes that have been committed and has given a confidential list of names to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to be used in future prosecutions.
“The Group is concerned that impunity continues largely unabated for those who perpetrate serious violations…To date no one has been held accountable for the violations that we have identified," Jendoubi said. "We call upon the international community to take a more active role in Yemen and call upon the Security Council to refer the situation in Yemen to the ICC (International Criminal Court).” – by Lisa Schlein
https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/un-says-yemens-warring-parties-must-face-justice
My comment: This is a short survey report of the following. If the world would be serious, it would be obvious that among those who must face justice at the ICC are all Western backers of the Saudi coalition warfare, starting with Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, the CEOs of all the great arms suppliers and and…
and
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Situation of human rights in Yemen, including violations and abuses since September 2014 - Detailed findings of the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen
UN Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen presents their third report to the Human Rights Council: A Pandemic of Impunity in a Tortured Land urging an end to impunity, in a conflict with no clean hands, and the referral by the UN Security Council of the situation in Yemen to the International Criminal Court.
In its third report, officially presented to the Human Rights Council today, the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen detailed scores of serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. These include airstrikes that fail to abide by principles of distinction, proportionality and/or precaution, indiscriminate attacks using mortar shelling, recruitment and use of child soldiers, and unlawful killings at checkpoints. Other violations include the use of torture, including sexual violence in detention, denial of fair trial rights, the targeting of marginalized communities and the impeding of humanitarian operations, having a devastating effect of the ordinary lives of those in Yemen. The Group also denounced the endemic impunity for those violations that fuels more abuses.
"Last year, we referred to the situation in Yemen as having reached a 'surreal and absurd' dimension. The situation has not improved. The continuation of violations this year, underlines the complete lack of respect for international law being displayed by parties to the conflict. For too many people in Yemen, there is simply no safe place to escape the ravages of the war," said Kamel Jendoubi, the Chairperson of the Group of Experts.
The report titled 'Yemen: A Pandemic of Impunity in a Tortured Land' was released on 9 September 2020, and covers the period from July 2019 to June 2020. The report presented findings of the Group's investigation in a number of emblematic cases, focusing on events since July 2019. The Group also examined incidents that occurred as early as the beginning of the conflict in 2014, to shed light on certain categories of violations. In this report, the Group of Experts has established that all parties to the conflict have continued to commit a range of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
"Our investigations this year have confirmed rampant levels of serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, many of which may amount to war crimes," Jendoubi added in his remarks to the Council.
The Group of Experts stressed that there are no clean hands in this conflict. The responsibility for violations rests with all parties to the conflict. In its findings, the report concluded that violations have been committed by the Government of Yemen, the Houthis, the Southern Transitional Council, as well as members of the Coalition, in particular Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
"We are concerned that impunity continues largely unabated for those who perpetrate serious violations. While the Group has seen some progress in terms of investigations conducted by parties and some matters have been referred for criminal prosecution, to date no-one has been held accountable for the violations that the Group has identified. Accountability is key to ensure justice for the people of Yemen," added Jendoubi.
The Group of Experts called upon the Security Council to refer the situation in Yemen to the International Criminal Court, and to expand the list of persons subject to Security Council sanctions. The Group also expressed support for the creation of an international criminal justice investigation mechanism, as well as further discussions about the possibility of a specialized court to deal with the international crimes committed during the conflict in Yemen.
The Group reiterated its call for third states to stop transferring arms to parties to the conflict given the role of such transfers in perpetuating the conflict and potentially contributing to violations.
Over the past weeks the Group of Experts conducted meetings with relevant international and local actors, including key Yemeni NGOs to present the findings of the third report and discuss the needed steps. Besides this official report, the Group of Experts also released a Conference Room Paper, which is a longer document detailing its investigations and findings.
from Summary
During this year, the Group of Eminent Experts prioritised for investigation violations occurring since mid-2019, while taking a longer temporal scope for some categories of violations not fully addressed during our previous reports. The Group of Eminent Experts found reasonable grounds to believe that the parties to the conflict in Yemen are responsible for pervasive and incessant international human rights law and international humanitarian law violations, many of which may amount to war crimes. The summary of these findings is included in A/HRC/45/6. In addition to highlighting the parties to the conflict responsible for violations, the Group of Eminent Experts identified, where possible, potential perpetrators of crimes that may have been committed. A list of names of such individuals has been submitted to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on a strictly confidential basis to assist with future accountability efforts.
The Group of Eminent Experts has taken into account the observations provided in relation to its previous report by the Government of Yemen, de facto authorities, the Southern Transitional Council, the coalition and the United Arab Emirates. However, the Group of Eminent Experts regrets that for a second consecutive year, it was not able to access Yemen and other coalition countries, despite having sent several requests for permission in January and February 2020. The Group of Eminent Experts directed specific questions to the parties to the conflict, but is yet to receive any response.
Notwithstanding this lack of cooperation, and the challenges of conducting investigations during the more restrictive COVID environment, the Group of Eminent Experts has conducted more than 400 interviews with witnesses, victims and other sources.
The Group of Eminent Experts’ report this year is entitled “A Pandemic of Impunity in a Tortured Land”. It is the people of Yemen who are suffering the brunt of the parties’ continued disregard for international human rights law and international humanitarian law. The title also highlights the palpable failure of the parties to hold accountable those responsible for the violations and to take action to realise victims’ rights. After six unremitting years of armed conflict in Yemen, the multi-party war continues with no end in sight for the suffering millions caught in its grip. The scale and nature of violations should shock the conscience of humanity. Yet too often Yemen is the “forgotten conflict”.
Airstrikes continue to be carried out by coalition forces without appropriate regard to international law principles of distinction, proportionality and/or precaution. Persistently high civilian casualties from airstrikes on markets and farms, for instance, indicate the coalition may be failing to take all legally necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian objects. Some airstrikes may amount to disproportionate attacks. The Houthis as well as coalition forces are continuing to deploy indirect fire weapons, such as mortars and rockets, including in heavily populated areas. These indiscriminate attacks are killing and wounding civilians and damaging critical infrastructure, such as health facilities. The legacy of landmines unlawfully planted during previous years, is disturbingly apparent, in the deaths and injuries of civilians, e.g. children playing in fields, and in the diminished access to arable lands and fishing areas.
Were the parties to abide by their international obligations, the situation could and would be significantly mitigated and the death of innocent people avoided. The Group of Eminent Experts has found that the Houthis in particular are interfering in humanitarian aid, and that all parties are impeding humanitarian operations. Furthermore, parties to the conflict are failing in their obligations with respect to fundamental economic, social and cultural rights such as the right to education, the right to food and the right to health.
Away from the frontlines, serious violations continue to occur at the hands of all parties to the conflict.
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26315&LangID=E
report in full: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/GEE-Yemen/2020-09-09-report.pdf
Conference room paper: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/GEE-Yemen/2020-09-09-report.pdf
Press release: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=26315&LangID=E
Film, Kamel Jendoubi presenting the report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhQTxG0musA
and
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Houthis criticise report of UN experts, call for independent investigation committee
The Houthi national salvation government on Wednesday called for forming an independent international committee for investigating all war crimes and violations committed by a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.
In a news conference in the capital Sanaa on the third report by the UN panel of experts, it urged for putting an end to the policy of impunity.
It said it would investigate war and siege crimes as it expressed reservations over the allegations included in the report.
The report has equated the victim and executioner and lacked professionalism because it depended on unreliable and hostile sources and the experts could not visit crime scenes in Yemen, it said.
The report did not mention the coalition's use of the economic card and starvation as a weapon and did not talk about the impacts of this strategy, it said.
Moreover, it ignored some crimes of the coalition including the occupation of Yemeni provinces and islands, child recruitment and use of internationally banned weapons, it added.
"The panel has repeated what it said in the previous reports when it considered what is happening in Yemen a civil war despite irrefutable evidence that what is happening is an international aggression".
https://debriefer.net/en/news-20195.html
and also https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=15155
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Film: Accountability for Yemen: Next Steps
A discussion with the UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen, and Civil Society The most recent report of the United Nations Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen (GEE) submitted to the 45th Session of the HRC provided several recommendations on how to ensure accountability for crimes committed in Yemen. This event allowed for the GEE to present the findings of their most recent report. Moreover, in light of the recommendations of the report, the event will explore how to build on and continue to ensure progress towards accountability for violations and abuses of international humanitarian and human rights law in Yemen. Speakers: Kamal Jendoubi, Kristine Beckerle, Radhya Almutawakel, Bahey eddin Hassan, Rawya Rageh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Zsc0UqsWE
and
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UN Human Rights Council: Prioritize Yemen Accountability and Redress
Grave Abuses Continue Since Council Considered Yemen Last September
Years of Impunity Endangering Civilians, Normalizing War Crimes
The overwhelming cloud of impunity surrounding the Yemen conflict endangers civilians, normalizes war crimes and ultimately facilitates warring party abuse, Mwatana for Human Rights said today. The Human Rights Council should heed calls to pave the way towards credible accountability and redress for Yemen, including by renewing and strengthening the mandate of the UN Group of Eminent Experts (GEE) during the ongoing 45th session.
From September 2019, when the UN Human Rights Council last considered Yemen, and the beginning of the Council’s current session, Mwatana for Human Rights documented the warring parties killing and wounding civilians, recruiting and using children, attacking and occupying schools and health facilities, arbitrarily detaining and forcibly disappearing hundreds, restricting aid, persecuting religious minorities, and strangling the limited amount of civic space left in the country.
“Impunity has helped the warring parties abuse Yemen’s people and push the country further into the humanitarian abyss,” Radhya Al-Mutawakel, Chairperson of Mwatana for Human Rights, said. “Six years into this unnecessary war, we need states to take practical and resolute steps to advance the cause of accountability, including renewing and strengthening the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts.”
“Leaders of the Saudi/UAE-led coalition, Ansar Allah, Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadiforces and other groups wage war as though atrocities can be committed without consequence,” Al-Mutawakel added. “The UN experts’ accountability recommendations moved the conversation beyond what’s convenient for the warring parties and their backers and towards what’s needed to give Yemen any shot at sustainable peace.”
The Human Rights Council should renew and strengthen the GEE’s mandate, including to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence related to, and clarify responsibility for, the most serious crimes under international law and violations of international law committed in Yemen since 2014.
Given political dynamics at the Security Council, the Human Rights Council holds tremendous responsibility on questions related to Yemen, accountability and redress. The Council has the opportunity to begin paving the way towards justice this session, Mwatana said.
Mwatana urged the Council to endorse the GEE’s report, including its findings on accountability. The Council should renew and strengthen the GEE’s mandate, including to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence related to, and clarify responsibility for, the most serious crimes under international law and violations of international law committed in Yemen since 2014. The Council should also task the GEE with issuing a report advising states on practical steps to help ensure justice and redress. More broadly, states, including those on the Council, should immediately begin pursuing concrete steps to advance a holistic and credible accountability and redress strategy for Yemen, including exploring the recommendations put forward by the expert group, Mwatana said.
“More than half a decade of conflict and the UN experts’ report was one of the first to heed the crystal clear calls coming from those most impacted by this war for credible accountability and redress, and for international solidarity in that pursuit,” Kristine Beckerle, Legal Director, Accountability and Redress at Mwatana, said. “The question of whether to pursue justice is not theoretical for Yemenis, it will determine decades of what’s possible in their state. It’s long past time that states stopped shrugging as war crimes are committed and began standing instead with those working towards a rights-respecting Yemen.”
Mwatana has documented the harm done to civilians, their property and critical civilian infrastructure since the war began. Mwatana’s staff has interviewed thousands of witnesses, survivors, and families of victims, in addition to health, education and humanitarian workers, and collected other forms of evidence, including photos and videos from attack sites, including weapon remnants.
Between September 1, 2019 and August 31, 2020 alone, Mwatana conducted at least 1,304 interviews in Yemen.
Since the Human Rights Council last took up the rights crisis in Yemen, the Saudi/UAE-led coalition has continued its indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes impacting civilians and civilian objects, and warring parties have continued to carry out indiscriminate ground attacks. Ansar Allah-laid landmines have taken the lives of dozens, while children continue to be recruited and used, particularly by Ansar Allah. Arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and torture are rampant. Over the last year, the warring parties, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, have gravely exacerbated Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. Rather than minimizing their impact on Yemen’s already collapsed health and education systems, warring parties attacked, occupied and militarily used health and education facilities. Attacks impacting objects essential for the survival of the civilian population and repeated, blatant obstruction of humanitarian relief once again raised concerns the warring parties are using starvation as a method of warfare. Yemenis are facing a torn societal fabric, with expression, speech, peaceful protest, religious practice and movement increasingly restricted and political and other identity-based divisions weaponized by those in power.
Credible Accountability and Redress Absent
Yemen’s warring parties have shown themselves again and again to be uninterested in pursuing credible accountability or redress.
In Yemen, institutions have disintegrated. The judicial system has splintered. Courts in Yemen are at best ineffective against warring parties and, at worst, captured by those same parties. Even if the national court system were to be rehabilitated, significant reforms, likely extending over many years, would be required to align substantive and procedural rules with international standards. Significantly, some perpetrators, including key commanders and civilian leaders implicated in some of the war’s worst abuses, reside outside Yemen. While many Yemenis are implicated in violations, so too are Saudi, Emirati and other regional actors. Any credible accountability and redress processes would necessarily incorporate these and other non-Yemeni actors within their remit.
Yemen, as well as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran and other key states, have yet to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In their third report, the GEE called on the Security Council to refer the situation in Yemen to the ICC, as well as to expand the list of persons subject to Security Council sanctions. Mwatana has also called on the Security Council to refer the situation in Yemen to the ICC, to clearly state that accountability and redress are non-negotiable aspects of sustainable peace, and to work to ensure human rights are centered in the Security Council’s approach to Yemen, including inviting the GEE to regularly brief. While the gravity of the situation in Yemen clearly merits each of these steps, the likelihood is currently remote given Security Council dynamics. After the Saudi/UAE-led coalition intervened in the conflict, accountability-related language disappeared from Security Council resolutions. The US, which backs the coalition, holds a Security Council veto.
For these and other reasons, the Human Rights Council holds tremendous responsibility on questions related to Yemen, accountability and redress.
An Opportunity to Pave the Way
Since 2014, human rights organizations as well as UN entities have documented and published on a wide range of abuses.
Airstrikes
Since 2015, the Saudi/UAE-led coalition has continued to carry out indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes, killing and wounding civilians and damaging and destroying civilian objects, including objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. In many cases, these attacks have been carried out using Western weaponry. In their third report, the GEE reiterated concerns that states supplying arms to parties to the conflict may be violating their obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty, and that this support may amount to aiding and assisting internationally wrongful acts.
Between September 1, 2019 and August 31, 2020, Mwatana documented about 28 airstrikes impacting civilians and civilian objects in nine Yemeni governorates. Most of these strikes were in Saada and Al-Jawf governorates. The strikes killed about 109 civilians, including 47 children and 21 women, and wounded 80 others, including 37 children and 18 women.
Ground Attacks
Since the outbreak of the armed conflict, the warring parties have continued to launch indiscriminate ground attacks, using imprecise weapons with wide-area effects, and killing and wounding civilians and damaging and destroying civilian objects. Many of the attacks have hit residential neighborhoods and crowded markets.
Between September 2019 and August 2020, Mwatana documented at least 78 ground attacks that killed at least 84 civilians, including 25 children and 24 women, and wounded at least 198 civilians, including 55 children and 42 women. The documented attacks happened in 12 Yemeni governorates, but were concentrated in Hodeidah, Taizz and Saada. The Ansar Allah (Houthi) group carried out 47 of these attacks, Saudi/UAE-led coalition forces and allied armed groups carried out 23, and forces affiliated with the Yemeni President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi carried out eight.
Landmines
Between September 2019 and August 2020, Mwatana documented at least 37 cases of mine explosions, all of which were laid by the Ansar Allah (Houthi) group, in eight Yemeni governorates: Taizz, Al-Dhale’e, Hodeidah, Al-Jawf, Ma’rib, Sanaa, Shabwah, and Hajjah. The mines killed at least 17 civilians, including nine children and two women, and wounded at least 50 civilians, including 25 children and 11 women.
Recruitment and Use of Children
Between September 2019 and August 2020, Mwatana documented at least 201 incidents of recruitment and use of children. The incidents involved 349 children, including five girls. The Ansar Allah (Houthi) armed group was responsible for the largest percentage of these incidents, 76%, with cases concentrated in Hajjah, Saada, and Dhamar governorates. Hadi forces were responsible for 13% of the incidents, and the coalition and affiliated armed groups forces for 11%.
Arbitrary Detention, Enforced Disappearance and Torture
Between September 2019 and August 2020, Mwatana documented 105 cases of arbitrary detention, 98 cases of enforced disappearance, and three cases of torture by the Ansar Allah (Houthi) group. In one case in Hodeida, a person died in detention after mistreatment.
During the same period, Mwatana documented 75 cases of arbitrary detention, 32 cases of enforced disappearance, and one case of torture by forces affiliated with President Hadi. One person detained in Taizz governorate died in detention.
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council was responsible for 45 documented cases of arbitrary detention, 56 cases of enforced disappearance, and 16 cases of torture. Two people in Abyan and Lahj died in detention after mistreatment. Mwatana also documented the UAE-backed Joint Forces arbitrarily detaining two people in Hodeidah governorate.
Attacks on Schools
For more than six years, warring parties have militarily occupied, used and attacked schools in Yemen. Many schools have been damaged, destroyed and forced to shut down. The education system has crumbled.
Between September 2019 and August 2020, Mwatana documented 55 attacks on or impacting schools and educational facilities, including 45 cases of military occupation and use of schools,
Attacks on Health
Between September 2019 and August 2020, Mwatana verified 22 attacks impacting health facilities and personnel. Most of these attacks included armed fighters storming medical facilities or threatening and assaulting medical personnel, in addition to ground attacks impacting facilities. Hadi forces were responsible for 13 of the documented attacks and Ansar Allah for eight. In one, Mwatana was unable to determine the responsible party.
Freedom of Faith
The Ansar Allah (Houthi) group continued its repression of and restrictions on the Baha’i community, whose members Ansar Allah has detained, confiscated property from, subjected to unfair trials, and sentenced to death.
The Press
For six years, journalism has been a target of the warring parties. Journalists’ movement has been restricted and many newspapers and websites shut down. Media workers have been murdered, arbitrarily detained, disappeared, tortured, subjected to unfair trials and otherwise abused and degraded. Some journalists, fearing for their lives, left the country, while many who stayed were forced to leave media work. Yemen was 168 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders annual Press Freedom Index, and is considered one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists.
This continues. Between September 2019 and August 2020, Mwatana documented another six incidents of abuse of journalists and media workers by the coalition, Hadi forces and Ansar Allah.
Humanitarian Obstruction
Between September 2019 and August 2020, Mwatana documented at least 69 incidents of humanitarian aid obstruction. Most included obstructing access for humanitarian aid and humanitarian workers, preventing relief organizations from, or interfering with, the implementation of projects, looting aid and threatening those distributing it. The majority of these incidents occurred in Saada Governorate. The Ansar Allah (Houthi) group was responsible for 59 of them.
https://mwatana.org/en/prioritize-yemen-accountability-and-redress/
Film: https://twitter.com/CIHRS_Alerts/status/1310948066216865794
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Film: Yemen: The world's worst humanitarian crisis explained
After nearly six years of civil war, Yemen's vital infrastructure has been mostly destroyed and disease is widespread. Now with the world's worst testing capabilities, it's fighting a losing battle with COVID-19. Mass graves are being dug and the country has a mortality rate of nearly 30%. Sky News' Special Correspondent Alex Crawford explains how the situation has become so bad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nzDs2-seD8
and
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Audio: Inside Yemen: Is the world doing enough?
It's the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet, but should countries be doing more to help end the human loss, suffering and devastation?
Millions of Yemenis continue to face hunger and starvation after five years of conflict.
Sky's special correspondent Alex Crawford and our team worked with Ahmed Baider, a producer in Yemen, to investigate the situation at a time when coronavirus has exacerbated the ongoing problems.
Ahmed gives us his own personal story on this edition of the Sky News Daily podcast, hosted by Dermot Murnaghan.
We're also joined by Alex and Sky's foreign news editor Zein Ja'Far as we examine and discuss what the team uncovered during their deployment.
https://news.sky.com/story/inside-yemen-is-the-world-doing-enough-12086156
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Yemen: Evidence of potential war crime by Saudi coalition
Sky News reports from the scene of a deadly airstrike that struck a remote village not far from the Yemeni-Saudi border.
A Sky News investigation has discovered evidence of a recent potential war crime in northern Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition, which is backed by the US and Britain.
There's already growing controversy over why Britain is still supporting a campaign which has led to the country being declared the world's biggest humanitarian disaster.
We were the first outsiders to reach the site - and the first independent journalists to examine the area and talk to multiple eyewitnesses as well as survivors of the massacre.
The mud and stone home was now rubble. There was very little left of it. But it was still strewn with personal items from the Mujali family who once lived there.
The crowd of neighbours who gathered round us were angry as well as shocked.
"Body parts landed on my roof," one older man told us. "I live up the hill there," he said, pointing. "I'd never seen anything like it."
Others pointed down the valley: "A leg ended up there. And an arm there."
This was a massacre. Nine people died on that day. Six of them were children.
There were no adult men amongst the dead or injured. There were only three survivors - a young mother who was breastfeeding her baby son and a teenage boy.
We tracked down all three survivors, who are now hundreds of kilometres away from Washah.
They told us the family had been gathering in the house for their midday meal. It was around 1pm on Sunday 12 July when the attack happened.
"I was screaming for help," Nora Ali Muse'ad Mujali said.
She'd been breastfeeding her baby boy in the corner of the house when the bomb landed.
"I was in shock. The house was destroyed," she said.
"I was searching for my daughter (who had been just next to her). But she was dead. Then I saw my sister-in-law and she was dead too. I just picked up my son and screamed for help."
One of the family relatives, who was further up the hill at the time, told us he heard a jet circling above and then a loud noise as the bomb was unleashed and hit the house. No other home in the area was touched.
"They were just women and children," he said.
He and others raced to the scene. "The jet kept circling for another 15 minutes," he told us. "It was terrifying."
Deliberate targeting of civilian and non-military sites may be considered a war crime under international law – by Alex Crawford (with photos)
https://news.sky.com/story/yemen-evidence-of-potential-war-crime-by-saudi-coalition-12083413
Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyPJyxuSWmk
Reports from July: https://www.france24.com/en/20200713-7-children-2-women-killed-in-yemen-air-strike-un = https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-8518759/7-children-2-women-killed-Yemen-air-strike-UN.html
https://apnews.com/8ed98936973879172abcfe4ed65789c5 = https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-8519899/UN-Airstrike-northwest-Yemen-kills-7-children-2-women.html
and the Saudi storytelling: https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2109587
Longest film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhb-R83EXPg
The bomb is a US MK82bomb, film: https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1282874406059024384 = https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/1282827500805132288
Photos of bomb: https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/1283121235233247232
https://twitter.com/trbrtc/status/1283045962970206209
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/1283034013444255745
Photos from the site: https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/1283054823001260032
Film from the site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMeqlQRodig = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAFNCYpGdfs
(** B H K)
Yemen: Houthi rebels 'shelled prison killing six women and baby' in possible war crime
More than half a dozen shells were fired at a jail from nearby Houthi positions, according to authorities.
The investigation centres on - but was not confined to - the disputed city of Taiz, the country's third-largest conurbation and once a cultural epicentre, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting during the six-year-long civil war.
But in the pro-government area of Taiz, multiple people told us about recent Houthi actions which appear in direct contravention of international laws during wartime.
The Sky News team became the first foreign journalists since April to gain access to the city's main jail.
The Houthi rebels are accused of an artillery shelling on a prison yard packed with female inmates and guards.
Six women died, including one female warden and a baby who'd been taken to visit her mother.
Several dozen others were injured. One female prisoner, who witnessed what happened and whose mother was killed in the attack, told Sky News: "It was carnage. The bodies were all in pieces."
The walls of the open quadrangle were pockmarked with holes from the shrapnel. Prison authorities said more than half a dozen shells were fired from nearby Houthi positions.
We managed to track down two other survivors who are now in a safehouse in the city after female activists negotiated their release following the shelling.
All of the women we interviewed told us they'd been imprisoned unjustly.
One said she'd been jailed for having sex outside marriage; another after being raped by an iman (religious leader); a third told us she had run away after her family forced her to marry twice whilst still a child. (She is only 17-year-old).
All spoke of the terror of being trapped in a prison which then came under fire. Attacks against any non-combatants is an international war crime.
A new centre has just opened in the city to cope with the rising number of amputees who're continuing to lose limbs after triggering hidden mines left behind in their homes by the retreating Houthi fighters.
We saw Hind Yousuf getting her prosthetic fitted and practising walking with it in front of a mirror.
She told us she was returning to her home after Houthi fighters had been forced out and stepped on a landmine hidden near a wall. The explosion destroyed her left leg.
And she's not even unusual in her family.
"The same thing happened to two of my relatives. (Both females). One of them lost both of her legs and another one lost one leg like me," she says.
A young boy who looks around 10 years old told us how a sniper picked him out as he was taking the family's rubbish out of his home. Ahmed points out the scars left from the bullet piercing his torso and exiting through his arm.
And in a hospital in Aden, we spoke to a little girl called Jameela who'd picked up a mine hidden in the field where she and her friends were playing – by Alex Crawford (with photos)
(** B K P)
Victims of Yemen's proxy war are 'screaming in pain, but no one is hearing'
Sky News speaks to a team who are building up a "dirty dossier" of evidence of war crimes.
"There are no heroes in Yemen, just criminals and victims."
Those are the words of a human rights investigator, a petite woman who has devoted her life to fighting for the victims and tracking down the criminals.
There are far too many of both in this country.
The victims are the millions of ordinary Yemenis caught in the midst of a protracted proxy war which has brought the country to its knees and turned it into the world's biggest humanitarian disaster.
The lack of easy access to the country for journalists and international monitors means many Yemenis feel, as one doctor put it, that "we are screaming in pain, but no one is hearing".
But Radhya Al Mutawakel and her team who make up the Mwatana For Human Rights group are resolute in their determination to try to get justice for the tens of thousands of suffering civilians, for which there is no escape.
They are building up a "dirty dossier", logging the mountain of human rights abuses and war crimes being committed by all those involved in this conflict. Their work is already being used to file prosecutions - and they're not fussy about where or who pursues these legal cases.
The International Criminal Court is taking up some of them and cases are being considered in a range of countries, including Britain and America - two of the countries supporting the Saudi-led coalition which is backing the recognised Yemeni government against the Houthi rebels.
We're shown the library of files documenting the evidence that the team are collating in their office in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a.
Radhya and her husband, Abdulrasheed Al-Faqih run Mwatana, together with an equally dedicated team of truth-seekers.
Both of them have been arrested, detained and threatened by both sides in the conflict because of their work.
They have collected signed witness statements, photographs, bomb fragments and satellite imagery for more than 500 different Coalition attacks on civilian targets such as hospitals, schools, health facilities and homes.
"There is a pattern here," says Radhya, "They cannot all be accidents. The challenge is collecting enough evidence for an international court of law. We corroborate everything two, three, four times... as much as we can. And we send our field researchers out to the site of the attack as soon as we hear about it.
"The huge gap when it comes to Yemen is when it comes to accountability,' Radhya adds. "So the parties to the conflict: they trust in impunity... they act as if they will never be held accountable." She and her team aim to change all that.
Their work is likely to send a chill down the spine of all those involved in the war chain including those nations who are supporting the perpetuation of this conflict. The Mwatana team is trying to ensure even the ground floor worker is convinced they have a responsibility.
Their intention is to ensure politicians, civil servants and other decision-makers, but also arms manufacturers and suppliers from all the Coalition countries, know that they could find themselves in court answering legal questions about their individual role in the catastrophe which is Yemen.
Right now they believe they have five different attacks on civilian targets in Yemen which directly link back to British involvement or military arsenal.
Radhya's colleague, Ali Jameel, who is a researcher, explains: "People who are in authority in the UK and could have stopped this from happening and didn't, should take their responsibility and they should stand in front of a court, right next to the victims who were injured or killed." – by Alex Crawford
(** B H K P)
Education in Yemen: Utilizing Remote and Non-Traditional Data Collection to Better Understand the Current State of Education in Yemen
The conflict has also significantly affected the education sector and the ability of children to acquire a basic level of schooling. This report, jointly prepared by the World Bank (Education and the Poverty and Equity teams) and the World Food Programme (WFP), uses novel data collection methods to examine how the education sector has been impacted by the conflict and presents key challenges to education access and service delivery as experienced by households and education officials during the conflict.
To overcome the challenge of collecting data in a conflict zone, the team utilized a series of remote data collection techniques to survey and interview households and key informants on education challenges.
The results of triangulating between these three sources of information demonstrate a number of key findings. First, one of the many factors impeding access to education for children is a lack of financial resources. Households are less likely to send all their children to school if they also report the primary difficulty they have faced in the last month is a lack of income or if they report they receive their primary source of income from less stable and lower paying jobs. Additionally, poor access to education significantly overlaps with poor access to food and health care. Given the primary determinant of poor access to food in Yemen is lack of income, and is also a factor negatively impacting access to health care (e.g., OCHA 2019), the overlap between poor access to education and poor access to food and health care also suggest that financial constraints are one of the reasons children might not attend school. Importantly, the association between financial distress and poor school attendance is common across the entire country.
Second, education is a multisector issue, and that focusing on schooling alone might not sufficiently increase access to schooling for the children that are at the most risk. There is a large literature demonstrating that poor health and nutrition outcomes cause children to be absent more often due to illness, participate less in class, and to ultimately have lower test scores than their peers (e.g., Miguel and Kremer 2004; Vermeersch and Kremer 2004;
Glewwe and Miguel 2008; etc.). Given the significant overlap between poor school attendance and poor access to food and health care, these results suggest that even if children were able to attend school, these additional deprivations would potentially prevent children from learning adequately. Thus, improving access to health care and improving access to food would likely also promote both better school attendance, and improve the quality of schooling of at-risk children that were already attending school.
And third, although association between poor school attendance and financial distress is common across the country, the specific problems associated with schools that are limiting access to a quality education are not constant across the country and significantly vary by region. These variations are strongly associated with the differences in government and differences in violence across the country. According to members of local governments, the largest problem facing schools in the north of the country is the lack of teacher payment; the lack of adequate school materials is the largest problem facing schools in the south of the country; and in governorates on the front lines with higher levels of violence, lack of security is reported to be the primary constraint. Thus, interventions aimed at schools, as opposed to households, could be sensitive to the different regional needs.
In addition to the key results about the provision of education in the country, this analysis further demonstrates the ability of humanitarian and development partners to directly reach out to regions that are extremely difficult to physically access. The key factor allowing us to perform these types of remote data collection is the willingness, and even enthusiasm in some cases, of service providers and households to talk to us at great length and a great number of times. Only one key informant refused to be interviewed out of the 63 individuals contacted in total, and all those interviewed were willing to be contacted again; and once a household is reached in the WFP mobile phone survey, there is a very high chance that the household will respond again to future interviews. These surveys and interviews demonstrate the importance of further taking advantage of this willingness to communicate, both in designing education interventions and interventions in other sectors.
and report in full: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/WFP-0000119424.pdf
(** B H K P)
The Forgotten Yemeni Refugees
Scores of Yemenis have fled their country due to the war, yet their suffering remains invisible, as they are often met with impoverishment and xenophobia in the nations they wish to resettle in.
Yemen already receives scant international attention over its humanitarian crisis, which the UN has called the “worst in the world.” However, the world is also unaware of the suffering Yemenis who have fled the war endure, due to their lack of visibility. Many are abandoned and in difficult circumstances, sometimes facing hostility in the countries in which they hope to settle.
Over 190,000 Yemenis fled the country at the onset of the conflict in March 2015, after the Saudi-UAE-led coalition declared war against the Houthi rebels and destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure with multiple devastating air strikes. The number of refugees has tapered off since the beginning of 2018, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), even though the conflict has worsened. Indeed, in June 2018, the UAE and Saudi Arabia launched one of their biggest assaults on the critical port city of Hudaida. By then, already 8 million Yemenis were on the edge of famine.
At various times, both the UAE and Saudi Arabia imposed crippling blockades on the country, put harsh restrictions on Yemen’s northern border, blocked sea exits, and have halted operations from the airport in Sanaa. This has left around 3 million Yemenis classified as Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP).
Some of those who could escape fled to the Horn of Africa, due to its geographic proximity to Yemen on the other side of the Red Sea. Often traveling via tiny fishing vessels, many settled in Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan, and surrounding countries.
Around 38,000 Yemenis went to Djibouti in 2015. While some have settled in the capital city, others are in direr conditions. For example, the UN reported last year that around 2,200 Yemenis lived in the tent city of Marzaki.
A UNHCR spokesperson told Inside Arabia that Yemenis in Marzaki are dependent on external aid and receive “humanitarian assistance to cover their basic needs including support with shelter, water and sanitation, food in-kind and in cash, and cash for household items.”
However, the camps are often not secure nor well-equipped.
Though a member of the Saudi-led coalition, the Egyptian government has taken in its fair share of Yemeni refugees, currently hosting over 10,000. As with Sudan, Yemenis can integrate more easily into Egyptian society due to sharing the Arabic language.
“The Egyptian government allows Yemenis to reach its land with simple procedures such as medical reports and allows the elderly and their companions to enter Egypt in a simple way,” Ahmed Badawy, Chairman of the Egyptian Refugee Support Foundation – an NGO which provides legal support for Yemeni refugees—told Inside Arabia. “They are allowed to stay and renew their residency every six months, so it is easy for those who have the means to leave Yemen to settle here.”
“However, it is expensive due to personal expenses and housing rent, which doubles the suffering of the refugees in Egypt in general,” said Badawy. “Many struggle with living conditions as a result.”
Despite this, there is still reportedly limited international resources for Yemeni refugees in Egypt, as with other places.
The same rings true in other countries.
Seeking to Build New Lives
Though Yemenis endure harsher circumstances in Djibouti’s Marzaki camp, some have slightly more favorable conditions and have settled in the capital city where they are able to flourish and build new lives.
Harsh Restrictions and Hostility
In other circumstances, host countries have not been so welcoming.
Some Yemenis have even tried to reach South Korea from Malaysia. Around 500 Yemenis arrived on South Korea’s Jeju Island in 2018, and have sought asylum in the country, yet are barred from leaving the island. Parts of the society have reacted to Yemenis with much xenophobic rhetoric, akin to parts of Europe’s hostile reactions to refugees.
There have been several calls for Yemenis to be rejected and forcibly returned to Yemen, despite the war and humanitarian crisis there – by Jonathan Fenton-Harvey
https://insidearabia.com/the-forgotten-yemeni-refugees/
(** A B P)
Uncertainties as to what’s next after Yemen prisoner swap
The Yemeni government still has doubts about the Houthi militias’s commitment to implementing the terms of the agreement.
Fadayel stressed that the prisoners’ file will have a positive impact if the agreements are implemented.
The Yemeni government still has doubts about the Houthi militias’s commitment to implementing the terms of the agreement, however. It is concerned that the Houthis may seek to avoid following through on the agreement under false pretences. At the same time, the government believes implementing the accord is an essential step to build confidence, which will reflect positively on other files.
In response to a question by The Arab Weekly about the mechanism for selecting names covered by the prisoner exchange agreement, a member of the government team in the Prisoners’ Committee said, “There was no specific choice of names, and each party did not choose the prisoners they wanted to release, but rather the other party would determine that. For example, the Houthis presented a list of 2,500 prisoners whom they wanted to be released, and we have selected the names of those who will be freed…
“The Houthi’s list included fake names or names of prisoners who were not held by the government in the first place,” he said.
“We presented a list of names of our detainees in Houthi prisons, and the militias selected the names of those who will be freed beforehand. A discussion took place about some names that suffer from exceptional health or humanitarian conditions within the framework of understandings of a humane nature, and therefore there was no selection when it comes to names, as some believe.”
The statement issued by Griffiths’ office and the Red Cross indicated that the two parties renewed their commitment to the Swedish agreement, including the clause that calls for “the release of all prisoners, detainees, missing persons, arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared and persons under house arrest.”
They also agreed to hold a new meeting for the Prisoners Committee with the aim of implementing the remainder of the understandings reached during the Amman meeting and to “commit to making all efforts to add new numbers with the aim of releasing all prisoners and detainees, including the four covered by UN Security Council Resolutions 2216, in reference to the former Defence Minister Major General Mahmoud Al-Subaihi, Nasser Mansour Hadi (brother of the Yemeni President), the military leader Faisal Rajab, and the leader of the Islah party Muhammad Qahtan.”
Yemeni political sources revealed to The Arab Weekly that the Houthis had refused to enter into negotiations over the release of the four detainees, as the group seeks to use them as a political pressure card in any consultations for a final solution in Yemen.
Yemeni political researcher Saeed Bakran viewed the prisoner exchange agreement as a public relations manoeuvre that both the government and the Houthis need to relieve mounting international pressure.
Bakran pointed out in a statement to The Arab Weekly that the government urgently needs to restore its relationship with the international envoy, while the Houthis seek to portray any partial concession on their part as evidence of their cooperation and positive engagement with international efforts to bring peace.
On the prospects of the agreement being a stepping stone for the upcoming peace talks between the two parties, Bakran added, “If this step succeeds, it may open a path towards further detente. The government and the Houthis now seem interested in rapprochement in the face of threats by the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in the south and the national resistance on the west coast. With that in mind, the prisoner exchange if implemented could lead to other agreements.”
Political observers view the prisoner exchange agreement signed in Switzerland as a continuation of the UN envoy’s efforts to score minor victories as part of his relentless pursuit of a political breakthrough in the Yemeni file.
Experts believe that the agreement is a chapter from the prisoners’ file that was originally extracted from a more comprehensive agreement signed in Sweden in late 2018.
None of the clauses of the Sweden agreement were implemented, including the provision on the prisoner exchange file, which Griffiths pressured the Yemeni parties to agree to as it was the least complicated of the issues at hand – by Saleh Baidhani
https://thearabweekly.com/uncertainties-whats-next-after-yemen-prisoner-swap = https://www.albawaba.com/news/building-trust-between-yemens-factions-will-not-be-easy-despite-prisoners-exchange-1383518
My remark: More in cp7.
(** B K P)
The Shifting Sands of War
As the scope of the fighting in Ma’rib intensifies, the signs of an attritional conflict without end are strengthening.
If one battle in Yemen’s war seems designed to kill as many fighters as possible, it is the one currently taking place in Ma’rib Governorate. Five years of fighting between Ansar Allah, usually referred to as the Houthis, and armed groups loyal to the internationally recognized Yemeni government have killed thousands on both sides, and the battle has been escalating. Neither side has suffered a full defeat or won a convincing victory. Both are fighting in terrain that makes it difficult to advance. What is taking place in Yemen is a largescale war of attrition, the main consequence of which has been the exhaustion of all sides. Even if one of the parties is victorious, this is usually followed by subsequent battles of attrition.
The western governorate of Ma’rib first saw fighting in January 2015, shortly after the Houthis seized the capital San‘a, some 170 kilometers west of the city of Ma’rib. The Houthis then tried to seize cities across Yemen’s north, prompting many anti-Houthi residents to flee to Ma’rib Governorate, where local tribes mounted strong resistance to the new rulers in San‘a.
Despite three years of relative calm, fighting resumed with a vengeance at the beginning of 2020. The Houthis seized some areas that had been under government and loyalist tribal control, notably in neighboring Jawf Governorate and the Nahem district, close to San‘a. Today, fighting on various fronts along the northern and northwestern boundaries of Ma’rib Governorate is killing dozens of combatants almost every day.
The Houthis have launched several major offensives to seize Ma’rib, which is rich in oil and is the largest stronghold of their foes, paying little attention to the casualties. They see control of Ma’rib as a strategically vital military and economic prize. Taking the sprawling desert governorate would neutralize the biggest threat to their control over San‘a, namely the presence of pro-government forces controlling large mountainous areas within San‘a Governorate. Economically, controlling Ma’rib also means taking over the Safer oil refinery that provides many parts of Yemen with their fuel needs.
But the Houthis have faced determined opposition from pro-government forces in Ma’rib. For them, defending the governorate has become a matter of life or death. This can be seen in the intensity of the current fighting and the Houthis’ failure to make decisive advances (in contrast to their fortunes in other governorates), despite having launched blistering offensives.
The battle for Ma’rib, therefore, appears to be a zero-sum game in which neither side has any option but to continue fighting, regardless of the human and material costs. Both sides realize that the battle’s outcome will decide much of the future political landscape of the country and its alliances. It is not a marginal battle but a delayed confrontation that has lasted since 2014 and has become a seemingly permanent feature of the hills and deserts of Ma’rib.
But what is behind the recent Saudi reluctance to deal seriously with the Ma’rib battle? And what is the reason for the Houthis’ growing determination to seize the governorate now? The answers to these questions reveal important factors in the dynamics of the clashes as well as underline the Saudi-led coalition’s changing policy toward its allies on the ground.
Since the launch of the intervention in 2015, Saudi Arabia has been allied with Islah and has depended on the party’s ground forces in the fight against the Houthis. But Riyadh and Islah are little more than allies of military convenience fighting a common enemy. As Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy priorities have changed over the past two years, Turkey has emerged as a key regional rival, even ahead of Iran, which unlike Turkey does not pose a challenge to Saudi Arabia’s claims to lead the worldwide Sunni community. This has made Riyadh suspicious of groups and movements that are sympathetic toward Turkish policy. Islah is one such group, as it has ideological ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, Ankara’s most prominent ally in the Arab world and which is opposed by Riyadh.
Despite the presence of other military and tribal entities, Saudi Arabia doesn’t see Ma’rib as something other than an Islah power base. This view is reflected on the ground, with many fighters on the front lines not receiving their salaries from Saudi Arabia, a reduction in Saudi military and logistical support, and attacks against Islah by pro-Saudi newspapers and websites that accuse the party of inaction in the fight against the Houthis, or even of making secret deals with them.
Riyadh sees weakening Islah politically and militarily as an essential step toward preventing the movement from opposing Saudi policies.
But the kingdom also realizes that it needs to continue providing some support to Ma’rib’s defenders in order to prevent it from falling to the Houthis.
Saudi efforts to weaken Islah do not mean that it favors the Houthis – by Ahmed Nagi
https://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/82805
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Coronavirus und Seuchen / Most important: Coronavirus and epidemics
(** B H)
Domestic Violence in Yemen and the COVID-19 Pandemic
With the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic violence has increased during the lockdowns and curfews imposed by governments. Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, has stated that one in three women around the world experience violence by men, and that the home quarantine and complete lockdowns imposed by most countries will increase these numbers in an intense and accelerated manner.In Yemen, a country whose population has been decimated by an ongoing brutal war for the past six years, the effects of the war have been compounded by the pandemic, increasing the likelihood that women and children will be subject to various forms of domestic violence.
As a consequence, this has reduced the number of activities that people can participate in, leading them to remain at home for long periods. Mona al-Dhabhani, a psychiatrist, said that feelings of boredom for extended periods, and the inability to fill free time with constructive activities, can lead to people losing the meaning and value of life. These feelings can lead to depression and anxiety, especially because of the difficult economic conditions and income loss as a large number of employees and laborers in Yemen are paid based on their work hours. In many cases, husbands have used the lack of food security as a justification for the use of violence against their wives, as was the case with Amal, who experienced suffering twice over – from hunger and from violence from her husband. Amal says: “We went through a suffocating economic crisis, during which we were unable to provide for our basic needs, other than a small amount of food. My husband, however, increased our suffering, as he is always yelling and accusing me of neglect, to the extent that he would severely beat me if I do not provide food.”
At the same time, children no longer go to school or participate in recreational activities outside of their homes, depriving them of opportunities to direct their energy in a healthy and productive manner. They have been forced to play at home, causing chaos in many cases. This occurred at a time when one or both parents had stopped working, increasing friction between family members, especially between fathers and children who are around each other for long hours.
The lockdown has created a fertile environment for harmful masculine practices that aim to impose the authority of brothers over their sisters through violent actions that include verbal and physical assault, with nothing being done by the mothers or fathers to protect their daughters.
Although many married couples would once have welcomed a break that would give them the time and space to deal with their personal problems, this mandatory break in the midst of these extraordinary circumstances has instead brought disputes to the surface, rather than allowing them to be resolved. On the one hand, the break from work at a time of limited opportunities to make a living, lack of food security, and increasing life pressures – problems that have only been compounded due to the war and the pandemic – has led to homes becoming a fertile environment for violence. On the other hand, as family counselor Altaf al-Ahdal noted, the excessive preventative measures have had a role in increasing the intensity of family disputes. For example, if one of the spouses, or a family member, does not adhere to preventative measures to combat the virus, this causes terror, anxiety and disputes.
https://almadaniyamag.com/2020/09/30/domestic-violence-in-yemen-and-the-covid-19-pandemic/
(* B H)
Corona treibt Hunderttausende Mädchen in Zwangsehe
Die Zahl der Kinderehen steigt laut "Save the Children" wegen der Maßnahmen gegen die Corona-Pandemie drastisch an. 500.000 Mädchen zusätzlich könnten allein in diesem Jahr in eine Ehe gezwungen werden.
Einem Bericht der Kinderrechtsorganisation "Save the Children" zufolge drängt Corona viele Familien weltweit in die Armut. "Die Eltern haben das Gefühl, keine Alternative zu haben, als ihre Mädchen dazu zu zwingen, Männer zu heiraten, die oftmals viel älter sind", sagte die Geschäftsführerin der internationalen Kinderhilfsorganisation, Inger Ashing. Fortschritte im jahrzehntelangen Kampf gegen die Zwangsverheiratung von Kindern drohten zunichte gemacht zu werden.
"Das Schockierende ist, dass es keine Langzeitfolgen sind, über die wir hier reden. Das passiert in diesem Augenblick", sagte die Expertin für Geschlechtergerechtigkeit bei "Save the Children" in London, Gabrielle Szabo. "Ursachen sind allein die Folgen der Corona-Pandemie." Die Mädchen gefährde, dass die Schulen geschlossen sind, die Eltern ihre Verdienstmöglichkeiten verlieren und Lockdowns zu mehr Gewalt und Vergewaltigungen führen. Eltern verheirateten ihre minderjährigen Töchter, weil sie kein Geld hätten, um für sie zu sorgen. "Viele Eltern tun dies in der Überzeugung, ihre Töchter vor Hunger und Entbehrung zu schützen, aber auch vor Gewalt, denn verheiratete Frauen bleiben eher zuhause", erläuterte Szabo. Dabei sei die Zwangsverheiratung auch eine Form von Gewalt.
https://www.dw.com/de/corona-treibt-hunderttausende-m%C3%A4dchen-in-zwangsehe/a-55113191
(A H)
3 new cases of coronavirus reported, 2,034
http://en.adenpress.news/news/27215
(A H)
Nine coronavirus patients recovered in Hadramout
http://en.adenpress.news/news/27210
(A H)
One new case of coronavirus reported, 2,031 in total
http://en.adenpress.news/news/27200
(A H)
No new coronavirus cases or deaths reported on Sunday
http://en.adenpress.news/news/27191
(A H)
One new case of coronavirus reported in Aden
http://en.adenpress.news/news/27181
(B H)
Yemen COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Snapshot - As of 26 September 2020
As of 26 September, the number of reported confirmed COVID-19 cases in Yemen had reached 2,034 with 588 associated deaths and 1,262 recoveries. Over the past week, only 4 new confirmed cases, 3 deaths and 39 recoveries were reported. While the number of cases reported continues to show a decline, indicators suggest that the virus is still spreading and the number of confirmed cases and deaths fall below actual numbers. A lack of testing facilities and official reporting, and people delaying seeking treatment because of stigma, difficulty accessing treatment centres and the perceived risks of seeking care are some of the reasons behind the decline in reported case numbers. The COVID-19 response continues to focus on testing, surveillance and case management, while procuring oxygen, personal protective equipment (PPE), and monitors are a priority. P
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* A K P)
Interactive Map of Yemen War
(* A K)
Latest updates on Yemen Sep 29, 2020 (map)
https://english.iswnews.com/15549/latest-updates-on-yemen-29-september-2020/
Map update Sep. 28: https://southfront.org/saudi-led-coalition-intercepted-houthi-drone-in-yemeni-marib-province/
Map update Sep. 27: https://southfront.org/uae-built-new-military-base-on-socotra-island-map-update/
Map: The battle of Marib, Murad, and Rahba Clashes continue on the southern fronts of Ma'rib, while government forces are attacking from the direction of Jabal Murad - Al-Rahba. Houthi forces attack north of Al-Abdiya in an attempt to cut off the Ablah line that connects Al-Abdiyah with Harib.
https://twitter.com/abduljabbar1612/status/1310904808140873729
(A H P)
The travelers crossing Al-Wadeah border [from saudi Arabia to Southern Yemen] suffer greatly, sleeping on the ground in the open for long hours. (photo)
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1311020167753850883
Another photo: https://twitter.com/alasaadim/status/1310663574193410050
(A K P)
Saudi, Emirati top military officials discuss operations in Yemen
Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Acting Commander of the Joint Forces Lt. Gen. Mutlaq bin Salem Al-Azima met in Riyadh on Tuesday, with the Joint Commander of the West Wind Operations and the Deputy Chief of Staff of the UAE Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Eng. Eisa Saif Al Mazroue, at the headquarters of the Command of the Joint Forces.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/27207
(* A H K P)
Save the Children’s statement on the findings of the group of eminent experts in Yemen report
Save the Children is extremely concerned by the findings of the Report of the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen released today, in addition to their official report for the Human Rights Council which was released a few weeks ago in Geneva.
Grave violations against children range from killing and maiming, recruitment and use of children as young as seven, abduction, sexual abuse, the denial of access to humanitarian aid and attacks on schools and hospitals. The report shows that over the past year, there was a high rate of child casualties in several instances of unlawful attacks against civilians, including in airstrikes the GEE was able to investigate. Further data from the CIMP highlighted by the report shows that children make up almost one in three of the civilians killed or maimed in the armed violence in the first half of 2020. With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fate of Yemeni children is growing even bleaker.
“The evidence presented by the Group of Eminent Experts is clear. Children and their families are not only being killed by bombs and bullets, but countless are also dying silently because they are denied food, access to clean and safe water, and medicines”, said Xavier Joubert, Country Director for Save the Children in Yemen.
“These horrific violations show how vulnerable children are during armed conflict. One in three of all casualties is a child – these are horrifying numbers. It must stop and perpetrators should be held accountable. We must break the cycle of impunity – for too long people who have been targeting children in this terrible conflict have gotten away with it. In particular, we share the concern raised by the Group on the de-listing of parties to conflict from the UN Secretary’s annual ‘list of shame’ whilst this report shows that children continued to be killed or maimed by airstrikes.”, Xavier added.
(* A P)
JOINT NGO STATEMENT ON YEMEN
Urgent need to address the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and its impact on the most vulnerable populations: A call for renewal and strengthening of the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts
This statement is on behalf of Save the Children and 9 international civil society organisations.
We welcome the comprehensive report of the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen and strongly support their recommendations, notably the ones on accountability.
After nearly six years of conflict, the war in Yemen has caused the deaths of nearly a quartermillion people. More than 10,000 children are believed to have been killed and maimed in the conflict. All parties to the conflict have been reported to have recruited and used children for military purposes, some as young as eight. Targeted attacks on schools, hospitals and health care workers as well as damages to critical water systems threaten the support Yemeni need to protect themselves and survive. Between 2015 and 2019, an average of one attack on education was reported each day in Yemen. With schools closed due to COVID-19, 7.8 million children are denied access to education. All parties to the conflict have taken myriad steps to control and politicize access to lifesaving humanitarian assistance and movement of humanitarian personnel.
The Yemeni people are the first to suffer from the rapidly rising fuel costs that make every daily cost greater, reduce hospital hours, and affect the safe provision of water.
And yet impunity for these egregious violations remains widespread. We were gravely disappointed by the Secretary-General’s decision this past June to remove the Saudi-led coalition from his ‘list of shame’ of child rights violators, despite the UN’s own findings that the coalition had killed or maimed at least 222 children in 2019 alone.
We call on Member States to:
https://watchlist.org/publications/joint-ngo-statement-on-yemen/
(B P)
RSF briefs Human Rights Council on violations of journalists’ rights in Yemen
During a UN Human Rights Council debate on Yemen today in the presence of the Group of Experts on Yemen, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the violations of journalists’ rights by all parties to the war, called for the release of detained journalists and stressed the obligation under international humanitarian law to protect journalists not participating in the hostilities.
The oral intervention by Isabel Amosse, RSF’s head of advocacy, during this inter-active debate is appended below:
The violations are committed by all sides and in all the areas controlled by the various parties, without exception.
https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-briefs-human-rights-council-violations-journalists-rights-yemen
(B H K P)
Jemen: 3,3 Million Binnenvertriebene, die niemanden interessieren
Der Jemen ist so ein Ort, wo seit Jahren ein brutaler Bürger- und Stellvertreterkrieg das eh schon ärmste Land der arabischen Welt jeden Tag ein wenig weiter ruiniert und in den Abgrund treibt. Millionen hungern dort seit Jahren, das Gesundheitssystem ist de facto zusammengebrochen und nun wütet auch noch eine Corona-Pandemie. Und es kann immer noch schlimmer werden.
https://www.mena-watch.com/jemen-33-million-binnenvertriebene-die-niemanden-interessieren/
Mein Kommentar: Oberflächlich schnell hingeschrieben, mit den Houthis als Bösewichten, die Saudis und die UAE kommen nur einmal vor („Iran, Saudi-Arabien und die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate – die treibenden Kräfte hinter diesem Krieg“; mit Iran an erster Stelle!), die USA überhaupt nicht.
(B H K P)
A Helping Hand for the People in Yemen
Yemen and its 30 million inhabitants have been exposed to war and drought for the past five years. About 80% of the population, including 12 million children, are in need of assistance, making Yemen the largest humanitarian crisis. Countries and organizations have stepped in to assist the people in Yemen.
https://www.borgenmagazine.com/people-in-yemen/
My comment: Zhe US and Yemen – this is humanitarian assistance and nothing else????????????????
(* B K P)
Abraham Accord: Another Neighbourhood Tragedy for Yemen
However, the beauty of island was tarnished by the UAE, which was captivated by its strategic location and is allegedly attempting to separate it from Yemen and establish military bases there. A further deterioration can be expected, as an alleged collaboration could lead to an establishment of Israeli and UAE spy bases in Socotra.
Reports suggested that the UAE and Israel have already paved their way to establish a secret spy station on Socotra, which is located nearly 350 kilometers south of Yemen in the Arabian Sea. Reports emerged earlier this month, highlighting that a delegation of Israeli and UAE officers paid a visit to Island of Socotra, in order to examine multiple locations for setting up the planned intelligence base.
It has been conjectured that the Israeli-UAE spy bases in Socotra were being established with a purpose of collecting intelligence from across the region. Besides, a report also alleged that the Israeli surveillance would be monitoring the actions of Houthis in Yemen and Iranian naval movements in the region, along with inspecting the sea and air traffic in the south of Red Sea.
The reports of Israeli-UAE spy bases in Island of Socotra have raised concerns that it would disrupt the global balance of power like never before, as the archipelago might come under a complete control of Israel. Moreover, while Yemen remains destructed, the intervention of Tel Aviv could bring unforeseen, severe misfortunes in the war-torn nation.
https://medium.com/@uaenews/uae-spy-bases-in-socotra-island-of-yemen-967f676d8cd1
(B H K)
2000 Tage der Aggression löschten das Lebenslicht in den Augen der Kinder des Jemen
Kinder im Jemen erleben eine Tragödie, die Worte nicht beschreiben können: Morde, Zerstörung, Vertreibung und Verlust von Familie und Gefährten, die sie in jungen Jahren zu Opfern machten.
Zweitausend Tage der Aggression haben die schönsten Jahre der Kinder im Jemen gestohlen, das Licht des Lebens in ihren Augen gelöscht und ein Gemälde des Elends auf ihre Gesichter gemalt und psychologische Narben hinterlassen, die sie nicht leicht überwinden können.
Szenen, die nicht gelöscht werden:
Szenen und Bilder der verstreuten Körperteile, verkohlten Leichen und abgemagerten Körper werden nicht aus dem Gedächtnis gelöscht und bleiben ein Fleck für die Menschheit und internationale Organisationen, die die Verbrechen der Aggression gegen jemenitische Kinder durch den Einsatz international verbotener Waffen ignoriert haben.
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3110332.htm
(B H K)
2,000 of aggression days put off light of life in eyes of Yemen's children
Children of Yemen are living a tragedy that cannot be described it in words. Murders, destruction, displacement and loss of families turned the children victims at an early age.
2,000 days of the aggression spoiled and stole the most glamorous years of Yemen's children and put out the light of life in their eyes as well as painted a picture of misery on their faces and left psychological traces that could not easily overcome.
Scenes Will Not Be Wiped Out
The senses and images of scattered bodies and charred corpses will not be erased from the memory and will remain a stain on humanity and international organizations that had turned a blind eye to the crimes of the aggression against the children of Yemen using internationally prohibited weapons.
Studies indicate that children who have been directly affected by war violations by bombing their houses or killing their relatives and their neighbors and others often have a strong tendency to violence, a general change of mood and poor appetite, and a feeling of instability.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3110508.htm
and also http://en.adenpress.news/news/27189
(B K P)
Houthis violated children’s rights almost 66,000 times in 4 years
The Houthi militia committed almost 66,000 crimes against children since the conflict broke out in Yemen, a rights group has claimed.
The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms, in a report from state news agency Saba New, said that the Iran-backed Houthis perpetrated 65,971 offenses against minors in nearly four years since they started monitoring the militia’s activities.
The crimes purported happened between Jan. 1, 2015 and Aug. 30, 2019, the report added.
Saba New likewise reported the rights group managed to document 3,888 deaths among children in Houthi-related attacks on civilian areas, sniper shootings and landmines as well as the deprivation of medical provisions in areas under their control.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1741121/middle-east
My remark: “Saba New”: Hadi government news site.
(* B H P)
Who cares what happens to the children of Yemen!
People there—of all ages, but especially the children and the pregnant—are dying in scores, not only because of the super-spreading, apparently unstoppable virus, but also because of a very easily avoidable reason: hunger. Of course there are other factors as well.
Five years of war, worsening flood conditions exacerbated by the ripple effects of the war, locust threat, spiralling Covid-19 outbreak in the backdrop of the an already crumbling healthcare infrastructure, and most importantly dwindling aid, have made the situation worse for the people of Yemen.
The people there are starving, dying, and at times hoping to die in search of respite from the pain of constant pangs of hunger. There are expecting mothers whose children are dying at childbirth, there are parents whose plea for help, for support, for the survival of their young children are being turned down by helpless aid workers who are left with no aid. There are the sick who are slowly making their passage to the other world with no treatment. And then there are those who are helplessly watching their children, parents, and families wither away in front of their very eyes, with nothing to do but pray for an afterlife that is less cruel.
Added to these woes is the unjustified suspension of essential US fund for Yemen by the Trump administration.
For now, as aid dwindles in the wake of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the world watches the spectre of famine, death and devastation unfold in front of their eyes with inertia. After all, this is happening so many miles away from our homes. Every country has its own problems to deal with, economic, societal, and of course, the Covid-19 outbreak that has stolen the limelight. So what that infants are dying, the unborn are dying, children are dying in another country. They are other's children, children we have not seen, nursed or ever held. And there are so many of them in number that they are almost faceless, or perhaps they look identical: the same hollow eyes, the same ribs jutting out of the chest, the same bones sticking out of their shoulders. For the ones who are lucky, medical tubes are connected to their noses, or IV saline catheter pushed into their hands. For the unlucky ones, there is only one place to go: six feet under.
But so what? As long as our children are well fed and happy, who cares about what happens to the children of Yemen.
https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/news/who-cares-what-happens-the-children-yemen-1967917
(B P)
On 26th Sep revolution anniversary: Yemenis can't stop dreaming, disagreements
There is almost a consensus that the 26th September revolution is the mother of all revolutions in Yemen during the last 60 years.
58 years ago, the Yemeni people revolted against the Imamate rule and aspired to a new state where equal educational and work opportunities would be guaranteed and the stratified society and the ruling on a religious legacy end.
But the Yemenis' glorious revolution has suffered setbacks and plots that have almost annihilated it and foreign interventions that have almost skewed its course. Despite all of that, it still lives in the minds and hearts of three generations.
The torch on its 58th anniversary was lit in many provinces, including the capital Sanaa which is controlled by the Houthis, Marib which serves as the last stronghold and defence line of the legitimate government and Taiz which is divided between the Houthis and the government.
Social media networks have turned into a large celebration square for many activists who still think that this revolution is still a lifeline. Activists have used social media platforms to tell stories of revolution heroes. Others launched discussions about revolutions in a war-torn country which has been put on the list of the most miserable countries in the world.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-20117.html
(* B P)
End blasphemy laws: Yemen
Yemen imposes substantial restrictions on freedoms of expression, assembly and association and the freedom of religion or belief. Freedom of expression is severely limited in the north of the country as the de facto Houthi authorities surveil the society and armed groups intimidate people into self-censorship. Materials which “prejudices the Islamic faith”, call on people to apostasies, or criticize the head of state are outlawed.
The Constitution of the Republic of Yemen declares that Islam is the state religion and that Islamic law is the source of all legislation (Articles 1-3). The local interpretation of Islamic law serves as a basis for all law, although Islamic jurisprudence coexists with secular common law and civil code models in a hybrid legal system. Religious freedom is not specifically protected by the Constitution.
It is estimated that over 99% of the Yemeni population are Muslims. Religious minorities’ rights have reportedly been respected in the past. As the de facto authority in Sana’a and northern regions, the Houthi rebels have persecuted the Baha’i community and Christians in the controlled areas. The small Jewish community also face discrimination by the Houthis.
The ‘blasphemy’ laws prohibit the “ridicule” of religion.
Article 194 of the Penal Code states:
“It is punishable by imprisonment not exceeding 3 years, or to fine” whoever:
“disseminates in public ideas containing ridicule or contempt of religion in its beliefs or rituals or teachings.”
Article 195 states that the punishment for this crime must be imprisonment for up to five years or a fine if Islam is the religion subject of “ridicule”.
Article 260 prescribes five years’ imprisonment or a fine to anyone who deliberately distorts the Qur’an in a way that changes its meaning with the intent to offend the true religion.
The act of ‘apostasy’ is punishable by death.
https://end-blasphemy-laws.org/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/yemen/
cp2a Saudische Blockade / Saudi blockade
Photo: Fuel tree - only in the war era. #Yemen is sent back into the dark ages. Those who care are helpless. Those who can are making millions of the protracted crisis.
https://twitter.com/alasaadim/status/1310907236798078977
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe / Look at cp1
(B H)
Impact of Covid-19 on Humanitarian Funding
the Case of a Female-headed Household in Yemen
To cope with the new realities, Kawthar had to reduce the family expenditure and buy only the essential food items and a few other essential non-food items. The amount provided by her brother covers the essential food part and the non-food items are purchased on credit. As a result, her brother is working overtime to secure more money to pay for the overdue credits. Kawthar also is using her savings to pay for her work-related transportation. As a midwife, Kawthar works five days a week helping pregnant women visiting the centre with the health care they need. She considers her work contributes to strengthening her clinical expertise and a pathway to achieve a permanent job. However, if no donor-funded project comes to the centre soon she will have no income to support her family, nor she will be able to come to work and strengthen her capacity by helping other women.
Kawthar and other 118 health workers (40% of them were females and they are totally or partially responsible for their families’ livelihoods) have benefited from the monthly financial incentives during the project lifetime.
https://www.unicef.org/yemen/stories/impact-covid-19-humanitarian-funding
(* B H)
Meet the woman who went from volunteering in Manchester to fighting famine in Yemen
27-year-old Esme studied at Manchester High School for Girls and the University of Manchester before going on to become an aid worker for the World Food Programme.
She is currently based in Yemen – one of the Arab world’s poorest countries – where people are badly affected by war and disease and where at least two thirds of the population live in hunger.
As special assistant to the representative of the World Food Programme, she plays a crucial role in ensuring that people there can get food.
Esme’s selflessness in the face of such desperate need is inspirational. From her time in Manchester when she volunteered with Refugee Action, to joining the World Food Programme – with positions first in Geneva and then Sudan – her work is making a massive difference.
What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
Working in a restricted environment is tough. Because of the security situation, movement is extremely limited and we are dependent on the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service to get into Yemen [there are no commercial flights into Sana’a]. We can only travel to the office and back.
Our work also faces a lot of challenges due to the security environment and sometimes what we are trying to deliver on the ground can be interrupted. For example, sometimes ships carrying important humanitarian aid are not able to dock into the port or our trucks cannot move, which delays our beneficiaries from receiving life-saving assistance.
Working and living in an emergency setting means anything can change and you must always be ready to respond.
And the most satisfying?
Once all the appropriate security procedures are in place, we are often able to travel to cities across Yemen and visit the people we provide support to on a daily basis.
Recently I travelled with the representative to Hodeidah governorate, where WFP feeds some 782,000 people who entirely depend on our support.
I was also able to visit Hodeidah port and see the unloading of food from a ship. The port is one of the most critical entry points for humanitarian aid into Yemen and has been the subject of a lot of media attention, as much of its infrastructure has been damaged due to the war. Some 70 percent of humanitarian relief items arrive through this port and the United Nations works so hard to make sure access to the port is not restricted.
https://ilovemanchester.com/meet-woman-went-volunteering-manchester-fighting-famine-yemen/
(* B H)
This Group Bears the Brunt, Yet Goes Unrecognized!
What if the marginalized had been settled in an area for centuries … would they be given great concern?
If war has negatively impacted other vulnerable groups like “IDPs, host HHs, or those physically challenged” and left them deprived from the basic/multi-faceted human needs, how would the humanitarian situation be like for the vulnerable marginalized communities “Muhamasheen”?
Haidara Ali Gilan Al-Masuri, an elderly woman in her seventies, paints a rather clear picture of a real-life suffering of the marginalized group (approximately 560 HHs) settled in Masrooh sub-district, Khayran Al-Muharraq district of Hajjah governorate. This poor woman has been taking sole responsibility for her children & grandchildren ever since her husband passed away.
Living as a marginalized “Muhamash” means that you have limited access to food, water, health, education, and even work. Haidara’s sons never got educated due to the harsh living conditions.
Getting Work for those marginalized is hard to come by either. Haidara accepted the reality of her life, living in a house made of steel (zinc). A house which cannot stand heavy rains nor strong winds.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/group-bears-brunt-yet-goes-unrecognized
(B P)
Film, in Arabic: Yemen-Safer's Oil Tanker Disaster Looms in Yemen
Analysts expressed their fear of imminent crude oil spills from the Houthi-run tanker, anchored off the coast of Hodeidah Governorate, west of Yemen. The Director of the Emergency Department and Marine Pollution at Maritime Affairs Authority, Mohammad Ali Al Mohandis warned that oil leakage will lead to an environmental and economic catastrophe, killing millions of fish which is the main source of food for most of the residents. He indicated that the cost of pulling out the oil is much cheaper than the irreversible repercussions of an oil leakage. He pointed out that the Red Sea is a vital area, where many mano trees and coral reefs live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osHMQafnDBI
(B H K)
Landmines Pose Hidden Danger To Yemen Civilians
Every day, civilians in Yemen face a most dangerous, but often hidden threat - landmines placed by the warring factions.
In a hospital in Aden, a young girl told British broadcaster Sky News how she was badly injured by a mine she picked up as she was playing in a field.
A doctor who treated her says the girl is lucky to be alive - she lost one hand, and shards penetrated parts of her body and blinded one of her eyes.
Civilians continue to pay a heavy price as fighting continues in Yemen.
The conflict in the Arab world's poorest country has killed more than 100,000 people and left millions suffering from lack of food and medical care.
Taiz, Yemen's third largest city, has seen some of the worst fighting and sieges of the war.
To this day, parts of the city remain under the control of the Houthi rebels, while other parts are controlled by those fighting for the Saudi-led coalition.
It has also seen infighting between pro-government factions, and a double siege, enforced by the Houthis locally, and the coalition on a national scale.
As the warring sides battle for control, residents are finding their streets turned into deadly thoroughfares.
https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/europe/landmines-pose-hidden-danger-to-yemen-civilians.html
(* B H)
How Conflict in Yemen is Impacting Mental Health
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from Armed Conflict
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 15% to 17% of people in armed conflict regions experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Considering a 25-year-old living in Yemen today “has already lived through 15 major conflicts and wars,” according to Columbia Global Centers’ PGIF Project, high rates of depression and PTSD in the country are no surprise. Rates of mental illness in Yemen exceed the WHO estimated values due to high poverty rates and inadequate healthcare access in the country.
Access to Mental Health Services
Years of ongoing conflict has severely impacted the healthcare system in Yemen. In 2017, the WHO representative in the country reported that “the Yemeni health system had collapsed,” leaving half of the country without primary healthcare. While the international community works to restore the health system, Yemeni’s mental health receives very little attention. Many Yemenis struggling with mental health do not know where to turn to as mental health services are not integrated into what remains of the country’s primary healthcare.
In addition to the lack of international and government support for Yemen’s mental health, there are very few doctors who specialize in mental health services in the country. In Yemen, there is roughly one psychiatrist for every half a million people. Moreover, there are only three mental health hospitals in the entire country. As a result, most of those who struggle with mental illness turn to traditional or Quranic healers. Professional help is often only sought after in extreme cases of schizophrenia and psychosis.
Impact on Children
The traumatic experience of living through the ongoing armed conflict has significantly impacted youth in Yemen. During the first year of the war, the capital city of Sana’a underwent airstrikes multiple times a day. Loud noises and sounds of planes have become particularly triggering for children in the region. As the conflict continued, Yemeni children began exhibiting unusual behavior, such as bedwetting, attempting to isolate themselves and declining academic performance.
According to one study, 79% of children in Yemen experience PTSD. As a result of this condition, many children have developed behaviors and believes that negatively impact their daily lives. For example, 63% of children practice avoidance behavior, 72% have trouble sleeping and 62% feel detached from friends and family. Additionally, the effects of PTSD often cause children to develop subsequent social-emotional, cognitive and behavioral disorders that they may have to carry with them throughout their lives.
https://www.borgenmagazine.com/mental-health-in-yemen-2/
(* B H)
Fresh Warning on Famine looming in Yemen Again
Roughly 80 percent of the country’s 30 million people require food aid and at least 16 Houthi-controlled districts in Yemen are believed to be in the IPC Phase 4 (Crisis) — one step away from famine. Despite this, and six years into the war in Yemen, parties to the conflict – including the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition – continue to obstruct the delivery of aid, including vital food aid, to food insecure populations.
The situation is compounded by donor fatigue. While the World Food Program had appealed for $2.4 billion for 2020 to cover Yemen’s humanitarian needs, it received only 21% of this amount in funds. Speaking to the New York Times, Mr. David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program, said it would take $500 million in the next six months, “just to provide food to Yemenis at half the usual ration rate.” He added, “even if we get the money, we still may have famine” because of delays and obstacles to delivery.”
The situation is further compounded by the collapse in the value of Yemen’s currency, a fuel shortage and the novel coronavirus, which may be spreading unchecked in the country. As noted by David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, famine is “definitely knocking on the door – it’s looming”.
Global Rights Compliance (GRC) have been engaged on the issue of mass starvation in Yemen since 2017 as part of the project ‘‘Accountability for Mass Starvation: Testing The Limits of the Law” in conjunction with The Netherlands’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, and a range of civil society organisations, experts in governmental institutions and official organisations, as well as UN mechanisms with a mandate in food insecurity.
In 2018, GRC worked in collaboration with the World Peace Foundation to publish expert reports and policy papers on starvation in Yemen and assessed the violations and the prospects of accountability of those conflicts.
https://starvationaccountability.org/news-and-events/fresh-warning-on-famine-looming-in-yemen-again
(B H)
“My salary no longer suffices to purchase the things of my child: Price rise threatens epic disaster in Yemen,” reads the headline of an investigative report by Aden Alghad website.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-42337
(* B H)
Is it safe to go back to school in Yemen?
This month, parents around the world are asking whether it’s safe for their children to return to school. This same dilemma is playing out in Yemen, where schools have been closed since March because of the virus.
Yemeni parents may have lived through five years of bombings, or had to flee their homes, but they still care deeply about their children.
Here are six questions that parents and children are asking themselves.
- Is my school dangerous?
The pandemic has made many parents worry about safety. But for parents in Yemen, this is not a new question. Before Covid-19, the war left many schools riddled with bullets or in ruins.
Schools in Yemen have been bombed, damaged, destroyed or occupied at least 380 times since 2015, even though they are meant to be protected under international law. By 2019, UNICEF found that one in five schools could no longer be used because of the conflict. Even school buses have been hit. That’s a lot for parents to deal with, before they even start thinking about the virus.
The solution? We have to ensure that any armed group attacking schools is held accountable. This is something the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) works for at the highest levels, and has spoken about at the United Nations this month.
Are our teachers prepared?
Saeed is a headmaster at Saif Bin Dhi Yazan school. But there’s a catch: he isn’t paid. Saeed is one of six volunteer teachers at his school, who essentially run the classes for all 300 students.
This is not an isolated case. Over 130,000 teachers in Yemen have not received a salary in four years. Communities often provide gifts of milk and food, but many teachers are surviving through odd jobs and small stipends from aid agencies. Saaed hires out his small motorbike and raises sheep.
Read Rahma’s story: Teaching on an empty stomach
The solution? NRC is one of many aid groups pushing for an agreement that would pay teacher salaries. In the meantime, we provide teaching kits full of supplies, and train teachers in class management, lesson planning and child protection.
And we also give out something else children need. “I got a schoolbag full of notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, crayons, rulers and pencil sharpeners,” Saeed’s daughter Raghad explains happily. “When I got home, I opened the bag to start arranging my notebooks for homework and lessons. I was so happy to have all these things to learn with.” (photos)
https://www.nrc.no/perspectives/2020/is-it-safe-to-go-back-to-school-in-yemen/
(B H)
Yemen COVID-19 Joint Market Monitoring Initiative, dates of data collection: 23 August - 30 August 2020
KEY FINDINGS: 23 - 30 AUGUST 2020
The reported number of open businesses within a 2 minute walk from KIs’ stalls increased compared to last round.
Sana’a city has recorded the highest cost of a cubic meter of water trucking compared to other assessed governorates, thus causing an increase in WASH SMEB cost in the governorate.
Price inflation remains the most commonly reported economic issue when obtaining fuel, WASH, food items, and water trucking services.
The food SMEB cost was found to have increased by 3.7% since the first round of data collection in August, and the WASH SMEB cost also increased by 5.1%, contributing to a 4.0% increase in the overall SMEB cost.
The proportion of vendor KIs reporting being able to absorb a 50% and 100% increase in demand for food items has dropped considerably.
Exchange rates seemingly continued to differ across the country.
(B H)
Mansour Al-Hamdani , he was teacher then he became an educational mentor in the Sanaa city and because of cut salaries since the war Now he is bricklayer for sustenance..so heartbreaking (photos)
https://twitter.com/SuaadS/status/1310340343301394437
Teachers have been without salaries since August 2016
https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1310520456089272321
(B H)
Yemen Women Protection Sub Cluster Services, August 2020
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-women-protection-sub-cluster-services-august-2020
Yemen Women Protection Sub Cluster Services, Jan to Aug 2020
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-women-protection-sub-cluster-services-jan-aug-2020
(* B H)
Civilians in Yemen caught in the middle as crisis worsens
The United Nations is calling on Houthi leaders in Yemen to reopen the airport in the capital Sanaa to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid into the country.
The Houthi administration suspended all UN and humanitarian flights into Sanaa on Sept. 9.
According to Oxfam, that move has meant 200 metric tons of aid hasn’t been able to reach the war-ravaged country.
“There are many, many people who are in dire need for such assistance,” says Abdulwasa Mohammed, a policy advisory for Oxfam in Yemen. “More delays mean more people will lose their lives.”
The UN World Food Programme says more than 20 million people in Yemen are now food insecure. Thirteen million depend on WFP food assistance daily, and the situation is worsening.
In June, 28 per cent of families in Houthi-controlled areas didn’t have enough to eat. The WFP says just three months later, the figure has jumped to 43 per cent.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7356282/civilians-yemen-crisis/
My comment: It’s odd to blame the Houthis first. The greatest part of food is imported through Hodeidah harbour which is blocked by the US-Saudi coalition.
(* B E H)
Yemen Socio-Economic Update, Issue 50 - July, 2020
Limited Regional and International Funding for the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan and its Repercussions on the Socio-Economic Situation
In this edition:
I: The Economic and Financial Position
II: Funds Provided to Yemen by Donors and Humanitarian Partners during 2011-2019
III: Evolution of Plans to Address the Humanitarian situation and Responses by Yemen’s Partners
IV: Humanitarian Actions in Yemen 2020 and Limited Funding
V: Limited Funding and Its Ramifications
VI: Strategic Directions Needed for Efficient Regional and International Funding
Editorial
For most of the past years, or since the second decade of the 3rd millennium to be specific, Yemen’s economy has been, and is still, experiencing stormy and unstable socioeconomic and political tumults. These events have syphoned off most of the sources needed for economic growth and they hindered natural, human, geographical and historical resources from being invested to their full potential, and relatively squandered the development gains made so far. The pace of these crises since 2014 and the severe imbalances and challenges they brought have aggravated to an unprecedented level. Ever since, the country has entered into the fray of conflict and war, with its collateral damage on the infrastructure and production and service capabilities, as well as the diversion of the development path backward for years more likely to last long, should such conditions continue, which might compromise stability, peace and sustainable development.
Given all these factors combined, amongst others, the economic activity has contracted by more than 50%, while the per capita share of the GDP decreased by about two-thirds in today’s dollar. In addition, poverty has spread among 80% of the population, with the middle class being relatively eroded, especially public servants who depend on their salaries as a main source of income, while unemployment rates have risen to critical levels and investments fled the country in search of safe havens abroad.
These implications have also extended to the social and humanitarian spheres, where the total number of people facing severe acute food insecurity increased to over 67% of Yemen’s population(1), while this number could drop to 53% in the presence of humanitarian food assistance.
Malnutrition rates have also jumped with some 24 million people had their livelihoods deteriorated and are now in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Moreover, there are 3.6 million IDPs now and one million+ displaced people outside Yemen. The crisis has also triggered a significant wave of brain drain, mainly scientists and professionals, who managed to search for decent work opportunities and stable life, let alone the breach in the wall of the social fabric, which begins to threaten social stability, the national identity and inspirational cultural values.
This issue of the YSEU Bulletin sheds some light on the regional and international financial support for response plans designed to alleviate the humanitarian crisis and prevent further deterioration, as well as looking at strategic transformations needed to promote the efficiency and role of regional and international funding.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-socio-economic-update-issue-50-july-2020-enar
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
Siehe / Look at cp1
(B H)
Yemen UNHCR Aden Sub-Office Fact Sheet - September 2020
1,082,430 Number of internally displaced persons in the south DTM March 2019
752,670 Number of returnees in the south DTM March 2019
163,000 Number of refugees and asylum seekers in the south UNHCR August 2020
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-unhcr-aden-sub-office-fact-sheet-september-2020
(A H)
IOM, KSrelief Sign New Agreement to Support over 100,000 People in Yemen
As the crisis in Yemen approaches its sixth year and the COVID-19 outbreak adversely impacts communities, humanitarian needs continue to rise across the country. To support the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) crisis response in Yemen, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is providing the Organization with USD 15 million in funding.
“This funding comes at a vital time for Yemen as the situation continues to reach new lows, with communities across the country struggling to survive,” said António Vitorino, IOM Director General.
The partnership will allow IOM to provide shelter, essential items, camp management and education support to vulnerable Yemeni communities. The project will support over 100,000 conflict-affected and vulnerable people in displacement sites in Yemen with critical camp management and shelter support, as well as almost 10,000 displaced persons and host community members with better access to education in areas hosting large displaced populations.
https://www.iom.int/news/iom-ksrelief-sign-new-agreement-support-over-100000-people-yemen
My comment: IOM praising Saudi Arabia for giving bllod money (the equivalent of ca. 1/13 of a day’s cost to bomb Yemen).
(B H)
Film, in Arabic: The Tuhamiya family, 3 of their men were killed by Houthi fire, and their women were displaced without food or shelter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmFKgmu7QHI
(B H)
QRCS, OCHA provide shelter for IDP families in Yemen
Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has inaugurated Phase 1 of a project to provide shelter for the internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Taiz, Ebb, and Saada governorates of Yemen.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/qrcs-ocha-provide-shelter-idp-families-yemen-enar
(B H)
IOM Yemen | Rapid Displacement Tracking (RDT) - Reporting Period: 20 - 26 Sep 2020
From 01 January 2020- 26 September 2020, IOM Yemen DTM estimates that 23,933 Households (143,598 Individuals) have experienced displacement, at least once.
Between the 20th September 2020 and 26th of September 2020, IOM Yemen DTM tracked 372 Households (2,232 individuals) displaced at least once, the highest number of displacements were seen in:
(B H)
IOM Yemen COVID-19 Response Update (06 - 19 September 2020)
Limited access to COVID-19 patient data and ongoing limitations on testing capacity remain a cause for concern for the humanitarian community as second and third waves of COVID-19 become increasingly likely. The health crisis is compounded by the rising price of petrol, with fuel shortages reducing water and sanitation assistance for an estimated 2.5 million people and food aid interrupted for at least half a million people, with another 300,000 at risk
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/iom-yemen-covid-19-response-update-06-19-september-2020
(* B H)
IOM Yemen: Situation Report August 2020
COVID-19 continues to worsen the situation for vulnerable, conflict-affected communities and migrants across Yemen. Insufficient testing and contact tracing capacities are evident in the low case numbers and high fatality rate and there are currently only six functional COVID-19 testing facilities across the country where only 7,000 tests have been conducted since March. Displacements sites, particularly in areas such as Marib -- which hosts the largest displaced population in Yemen -- are disproportionately affected by the limited testing and response capacity. Indicators suggest that with continued interrupted humanitarian assistance, acute vulnerabilities will continue to rise, and the number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity will increase to 3.2 million people in southern governorates alone. To support Yemen's health system, IOM and partners continue to prioritize COVID-19 response efforts on enhancing testing, case management and surveillance capacity, and sustaining multisectoral humanitarian response efforts.
COVID-19 related displacements have slowed considerably, while displacements due to conflict activities---particularly from areas like Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Marib, Al Bayda, Al Dhale'e and Taizz governorates continued---with 2,935 households displaced in August. Conflict remains the main driver of displacement in Yemen, with approximately 80% of the 20,812 displaced households recorded by IOM Yemen's Displacement Tracking Matrix from 1 January and 31 August 2020 citing conflict as their primary reason for displacement.
In early August, continuous heavy rain caused flooding in Marib, heavily impacting both Sirwah and Al Wadi Districts. In Sirwah, IOM is targeting the largest IDP-hosting site with multi-sectoral assistance.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/iom-yemen-situation-report-august-2020-enar
(B H)
UNHCR Kharaz Refugee Camp, Yemen - Fact Sheet September 2020
Located in Lahj Governorate, south of Yemen, Kharaz camp opened in 2001 and remains the only refugee camp in Yemen.
As of end of August 2020, the camp is home to close to 9,000 refugees and asylum seekers, mostly from Somalia and Ethiopia.
UNHCR and partners provide protection and assistance to refugees and host communities.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/unhcr-kharaz-refugee-camp-yemen-fact-sheet-september-2020
(A H K)
More than 8 thousand IDPs were displaced from camps in Marib after the recent Houthi attack on the province, the IOM said. Source: Khabar news agency.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-42259
(A H)
I'm so happy to let you know guys that @monarelief 's team in #Yemen succeeded in building tents 2 families in Hajjah. Proud 2 say that we are the only NGO that provided training 2 beneficiaries & helped them 2 build their own tents. Thanks 2 Partners Relief & Carmagawa 4 support
Construction is in progress.. these simple new tents will give 100 families in #Yemen shelter after their homes were destroyed by recent flooding. (photos)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1309947566759596032
https://twitter.com/PartnersRelief/status/1309667900504981504
(B H)
Misery of Hodeida displaced families in Aden
Sulieman is one of several displaced people who left their homes in Hodeida, west Yemen and they live now in Al-Sha’ab city of Aden, south Yemen.
Sulieman had to flee the war seeking security after the fighting in Hodeida intensified in 2018.
“I was forced to leave Hodeida two years ago with my family due to the fighting,” Sulieman said in a conversation with Alsahwa Net.
Yet, he found himself in Aden suffering hardships of life, sickness and pounding heat in a tent that barely protects him and his family against the sun heat.
He affirmed in his conversation that he is unable to secure a living for himself and his family members because of his sight disability.
He has been living on some food aids that includes rice and wheat and other food stuff coming from charity people.
He added that his eldest daughter is suffering a sight disease and she might lose her sight completely. His other daughter is suffering cerebral palsy.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-42280
Fortsetzung / Sequel: cp5 – cp19
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-683b-yemen-war-mosaic-683b
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-682-yemen-war-mosaic-682
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-682 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-682:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:
(18 +, Nichts für Sensible!) / (18 +; Graphic!)
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/
Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:
http://yemendataproject.org/data/
Untersuchung ausgewählter Luftangriffe durch Bellingcat / Bellingcat investigations of selected air raids:
Untersuchungen von Angriffen, hunderte von Filmen / Investigations of attacks, hundreds of films:
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