... Neuer Film: Hungerstation – Folgen der Einstufung der Huthis als „Terroristen“ – Landwirtschaft im Jemen – Pläne der Emirate für Sokotra – In einem jemenitischen Krankenhaus – Großbritannien liefert Ersatzteile für saudische Kampfflugzeuge – Coronavirus im Jemen – und mehr
Dec. 7, 2020: 233,000 victims of Yemen War – We are the terrorists – Briefing on impunity for crimes in Yemen – Famine looming in Yemen – New film: Hunger Ward – Dire consequences of blacklisting the Houthis as “terrorists” – Agriculture in Yemen – The UAE’s plans for Socotra – Inside a Yemeni hospital – Britain supplies spare parts for Saudi fighter jets – Coronavirus in Yemen – and more
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Kursiv: Siehe Teil 2 / In Italics: Look in part 2: https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-699b-yemen-war-mosaic-699b
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
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Großer Gefangenenaustausch / Most important: Great prisoner swap
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
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)
UN humanitarian office puts Yemen war dead at 233,000, mostly from ‘indirect causes’
Almost a quarter of a million people have died in Yemen’s war, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on its website on Tuesday, confirming the huge toll from a conflict that has ravaged Yemen’s economy and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
OCHA included the figure in an update within its latest Global Humanitarian Overview, where it gave a description of the context, crisis and humanitarian needs in Yemen. It said the conflict had intensified this year, with 47 identifiable front lines by the end of October, up from 33 at the start of this year.
“The war had already caused an estimated 233,000 deaths, including 131,000 from indirect causes such as lack of food, health services and infrastructure”, it said.
More than 3,000 child deaths
“Hostilities have directly caused tens of thousands of civilian casualties; 3,153 child deaths and 5,660 children were verified in the first five years of the conflict, and 1,500 civilian casualties were reported in the first nine months of 2020.”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/12/1078972
(** B H K P)
We Are The Terrorists
The Trump administration is reportedly close to moving the Houthi rebels in Yemen onto its official list of designated terrorist organizations with the goal of choking them off from money and resources
The United Nations conservatively estimates that some 233,000 Yemenis have been killed in the war between the Houthis and the US-backed Saudi-led coalition, mostly from what it calls "indirect causes"
They are the result of the Saudi coalition's use of blockades and its deliberate targeting of farms, fishing boats, marketplaces, food storage sites, and cholera treatment centers with airstrikes aimed at making the Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen so weak and miserable that they break.
In other words, the US and its allies have been helping Saudi Arabia deliberately kill children and other civilians on mass scale in order to achieve a political goal. Which would of course be a perfect example of any standard definition of terrorism.
We are the terrorists. Saudi Arabia, the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, France and every other nation which has facilitated the horrific mass atrocity in Yemen--this tight globe-spanning power alliance is a terrorist organization the likes of which the world has never seen before. The idea of the unfathomably savage and bloodthirsty US empire designating the Houthis as a terrorist organization is the least funny joke that has ever been told.
We are the terrorists. I say "we" instead of our governments because if we are honest with ourselves, we as a civilian population are complicit in this slaughter. The horrors in Yemen are without question the worst thing that is happening in the world right now, yet they comprise barely a blip in our social consciousness. The overwhelming majority of us have seen the pictures and videos of starving Yemeni children, thought something along the lines of "Oh a famine, that's so sad" and gone back to thinking about sports or whatever other insipid nonsense occupies most of our attention.
We are the terrorists. Yes it is true that we have been propagandized into our complicity with this terrorism and if the news media were doing its purported job Yemen would be front and center in our attention, but we are still complicit. We are still participating in it, still living in a society that is woven of the fabric of slaughter and brutality without rising up and using the power of our numbers to force a change. Just because you are unaware that you sleep on a bed of butchered children doesn't mean you're not lying in it – by Caitlin Johnstone
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2012/S00024/we-are-the-terrorists.htm = https://ahtribune.ca/world/4486-we-are-the-terrorists.html = https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/12/04/we-are-the-terrorists/
(** B H K P)
UN Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen Briefs the UN Security Council Urging an end to impunity, an expansion of sanctions, and the referral by the UN Security Council of the situation in Yemen to the International Criminal Court
Today the UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen (GEE) briefed the UN Security Council in a closed session on its third report “A Pandemic of Impunity in a Tortured Land” in which it detailed serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
Violations include airstrikes that fail to abide by principles of distinction, proportionality and/or precaution leading to high civilian casualties; indiscriminate attacks using mortar shelling; the laying of landmines; the recruitment and use of child soldiers, unlawful killings; enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention, 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 on civilians in Yemen and contributing to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“Civilians in Yemen are not starving, they are being starved by the parties to the conflict,” said Kamel Jendoubi, the Chairperson of the Group.
The Group also denounced the endemic impunity for violations, which has the effect of fueling more abuses.
“The situation in Yemen has reached a ‘surreal and absurd’ dimension. The continuation of violations this year underlines the complete lack of respect for international law and human life being displayed by parties to the conflict. For civilians in Yemen, there is simply no safe place to escape the ravages of the war,” said Jendoubi.
“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. However, to the Experts’ knowledge, not one person from any of the parties to the conflict has been held responsible for any violations in Yemen.
“Accountability is key to ensuring justice and a sustainable peace for the people of Yemen. We are concerned that impunity continues largely unabated for those who perpetrate serious violations, which only adds to the insecurity in Yemen. Violations of human rights need to be called out for what they are — threats to peace, security and development, and a key driver of conflict”, said Jendoubi.
The Group noted that the human rights crisis in Yemen squarely touches upon matters on the UN Security Council’s agenda, including threats to international peace and security, the situation in the Middle East, protection of civilians in armed conflict; starvation as a method of warfare; impediments to the delivery of humanitarian assistance; women and peace and security: sexual violence in conflict; children and armed conflict: recruitment and use of children in hostilities.
The Chair of the Group Jendoubi stated, “It is now the collective responsibility of the international community to intervene to help the Yemeni people.”
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.
“The continued supply of weapons to parties to the conflict is only perpetuating the conflict and prolonging the suffering of the Yemeni people” said 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. It called for human rights to be more fully integrated into the Security Council’s regular agenda.
It noted that such actions “would send a powerful message to the conflicting parties that there will be no impunity for serious violations of human rights.”
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26563&LangID=E
and a shorter survey: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/12/1079232
(** B H K P)
Chance Hungersnot im Jemen abzuwenden schwindet, warnen UN-Organisationen
Die Chance, eine Hungersnot im Jemen abzuwenden, wird immer kleiner angesichts neuer Rekordzahlen des akuten Hungers im Land, warnten heute die UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), das UN World Food Programme (WFP) und UNICEF.
Die Ergebnisse der neuen sogenannten „Integrated Food Security Phase Classification“ (IPC) – im Rahmen derer Hunger gemessen und in 5 Phasen eingeteilt wird – zeigen für den Jemen erschreckendes: Zum ersten Mal seit zwei Jahren gleicht die Situation in einigen Gebieten einer Hungersnot (IPC-Phase 5). Die Zahl der Menschen, die in diesem katastrophalen Ausmaß Hunger leiden, könnte sich zwischen Januar und Juni 2021 von derzeit 16.500 auf 47.000 Menschen fast verdreifachen.
Gleichzeitig warnt die heutige IPC-Analyse davor, dass die Zahl der Menschen in Phase 4 – der Krisenphase – des Hungers in der ersten Hälfte des Jahres 2021 vorraussichtlich von 3,6 Millionen auf 5 Millionen Menschen ansteigen wird. Auch sie könnten dann in katastrophale Zustände abrutschen und würden ohne Kursänderung möglicherweise in eine Hungersnot gestürzt.
„Diese alarmierenden Zahlen müssen ein Weckruf für die Welt sein. Der Jemen steht am Rande einer Hungersnot und wir dürfen die Millionen von Familien nicht im Stich lassen, die jetzt in verzweifelter Not sind. Jetzt dürfen keine Fehler gemacht werden: 2021 wird für die Bedürftigsten im Jemen noch schlimmer sein als 2020. Eine Hungersnot kann immer noch verhindert werden – aber diese Chance entgleitet uns mit jedem Tag, der vergeht“, sagte David Beasley, Exekutivdirektor des UN World Food Programme (WFP).
Phase 4 ist die letzte Warnung, zu handeln – an diesem Punkt auf dem Hungerspektrum leiden die Menschen bereits enorm und einige der gefährdetsten Menschen sterben möglicherweise an Hunger. Mehr als die Hälfte der Bevölkerung (16,2 Millionen) der 30 Millionen Jemenit*innen wird bis Mitte 2021 mit Hunger auf Krisenniveau – Phase 3 und darüber – konfrontiert sein. Viele stehen an der Schwelle zu einer weiteren Verschlimmerung des Hungers, da über fünf Jahre Krieg Familien ausgelaugt und sie extrem anfällig für Schocks gemacht haben.
„Die Menschen am Leben zu halten, indem man die Versorgung mit Nahrungsmitteln sicherstellt, ist unerlässlich, aber dieser Kreislauf kann nicht ewig weitergehen. Der Jemen braucht ein Ende des Konflikts, der die Hauptursache des Hungers im Land ist. Jemenitische Familien brauchen Stabilität und Sicherheit – und Hilfe für ihre Lebensgrundlagen, damit sie die normale Nahrungsmittelproduktion wieder aufnehmen können, damit sie weniger Unterstützung von außen benötigen und widerstandsfähigere und unabhängigere Ernährungssysteme aufbauen können", sagte der Generaldirektor der FAO, QU Dongyu.
In einem Land, das 80% seiner Nahrungsmittel importiert und in dem 70% der Bevölkerung in ländlichen Gebieten und von der Landwirtschaft lebt, ist sofortige und koordinierte humanitäre Hilfe entscheidend, um eine Hungersnot zu verhindern und Leben zu retten. Durch erhebliche Finanzierungslücken drohen jedoch weitere Kürzungen der lebenswichtigen Ernährungshilfe, lebensrettenden Behandlung von Mangelernährung von Kindern unter fünf Jahren und schwangeren oder stillenden Frauen, sowie der Unterstützung von Haushalten, damit sie das Essen und Einkommen haben, das sie so dringend benötigen.
„Die Welt darf nicht tatenlos zusehen, wie der Jemen in eine Hungersnot abgleitet und Millionen gefährdete Kinder und Familien hungern“, sagte UNICEF-Exekutivdirektorin Henrietta Fore. „Die Situation ist jetzt schon katastrophal und ohne dringende Hilfe werden noch mehr Kinder sterben. Wir haben die Hungersnot im Jemen schon einmal verhindert und wir sollten in der Lage sein, sie erneut abzuwenden, mit verstärkter Unterstützung und ungehindertem Zugang zu jedem Kind und jeder Familie in Not.“
Die aufflammende Krise geht auf eine Kombination komplexer Ursachen zurück, darunter die Verschärfung des Konflikts, der zu einem wirtschaftlichen Zusammenbruch geführt hat, einschließlich eines dramatischen Anstiegs der Nahrungsmittelpreise im Süden des Jemen und einem Embargo für Brennstoffimporte, von dem Familien in den nördlichen Gebieten betroffen sind. Die COVID-19-Pandemie hat die Not noch verschärft, da Rücküberweisungen von Familie und Freunden aus dem Ausland zurückgegangen und Einkommensmöglichkeiten versiegt sind, das Gesundheitssystem an seine Grenzen gebracht wurde und Reisebeschränkungen den Zugang zu Märkten erschwert haben. Darüber hinaus haben eine Heuschreckenplage und Überflutungen die lokale Nahrungsmittelproduktion in einigen Gebieten beeinträchtigt.
Die Kürzungen der humanitären Hilfe in diesem Jahr, einschließlich der Ernährungshilfe, haben frühere Fortschritte in der Ernährungssicherheit zunichte gemacht und die Familien mit immer größeren Lücken in ihrer Nahrungsmittelversorgung zurückgelassen. Im nächsten Jahr werden die Kürzungen fortgesetzt und möglicherweise ausgeweitet, es sei denn, die benötigten Mittel werden zur Verfügung gestellt – so könnten sich diese alarmierenden Prognosen möglicherweise sogar als Unterschätzung herausstellen, warnten die Organisationen.
und auch https://www.unicef.de/informieren/aktuelles/presse/2020/jemen-hunger-auf-rekordhoehe/232672
(** B H K P)
Window to prevent famine in Yemen is narrowing, UN agencies warn
The window to prevent famine in Yemen is narrowing as new figures reveal record highs of acute food insecurity in the country, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warned today.
New Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysisfor Yemen indicates that pockets of famine-like conditions (IPC Phase 5) have already returned for the first time in two years, and warns that the number of people experiencing this degree of catastrophic food insecurity could nearly triple from 16,500 currently to 47,000 people between January and June 2021.
At the same time, today’s IPC analysis warns that the numbers of people facing Phase 4 food insecurity– the Emergency phase – is poised to increase from 3.6 million to 5 million people in the first half of 2021 – putting them too on the precipice of falling into catastrophic conditions and – without a change of course – possibly famine.
“These alarming numbers must be a wake-up call to the world. Yemen is on the brink of famine and we must not turn our backs on the millions of families who are now in desperate need. Make no mistake, 2021 will be even worse than 2020 for Yemen’s most vulnerable people. Famine can still be prevented – but that opportunity is slipping away with every day that passes,” said David Beasley, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme.
Phase 4 is a final warning for action – at this point on the IPC’s hunger spectrum, people are already suffering enormously with some of the most vulnerable potentially dying of hunger. Over half the population (16.2 million) of 30 million will be facing crisis levels of food insecurity (Phase 3+) by mid-2021, with many on the threshold of slipping into worsening levels of hunger as over five years of war have exhausted families and left them acutely vulnerable to shocks.
“Keeping people alive by maintaining the flow of food is imperative, but this cycle cannot continue forever. Yemen needs a cessation of conflict, which is the primary driver of food insecurity in the country. Yemeni families need stability and security – and livelihood assistance to help them resume normal food production, so that they require less external support, and can build more resilient and self-sufficient food systems,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.
Immediate and coordinated humanitarian support is critical to prevent famine and save lives, in a country that relies on imports for 80 percent of its food and where over 70 percent of the population live in rural areas and rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. But significant funding shortfalls threaten even more cuts to lifeline food assistance, as well as to life-saving malnutrition treatment services for children under five years and pregnant or breastfeeding women, and support that keep households producing the food and income they need to get by.
“The world cannot stand by as Yemen slips into famine and millions of vulnerable children and families go hungry,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “The situation is already catastrophic, and without urgent action more children will die. We have prevented famine in Yemen before, and we should be able to prevent it again, with increased support and with unimpeded access to every child and family in need.”
The surging crisis is a combination of complex causes: intensifying conflict which has brought on an economic collapse, including dramatic food price increases in Yemen’s south, and a fuel import embargo hitting families in northern areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded suffering as remittances have fallen, earning opportunities have dried up, health services been stretched to the limits and travel restrictions have compromised access to markets. On top of that, a locust plague and flash floods have battered local food production in some areas.
Cuts to humanitarian support this year, including food assistance, have erased previous food security gains and left families with worsening food consumption gaps. Next year cuts will continue and may be expanded, unless funding is urgently received, meaning these alarming forecasts may be an underestimate, the agencies warned.
https://www.wfp.org/news/window-prevent-famine-yemen-narrowing-un-agencies-warn
and shorter survey https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/window-prevent-famine-yemen-narrowing-un-agencies-warn
and report by Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/dec/03/yemen-one-step-away-from-famine-as-donors-dry-up-amid-covid-un-warns
(** B H)
HUNGER WARD
The last hope against war and starvation
WOMEN FIGHTING HUNGER ON THE FRONTLINES OF A FORGOTTEN WAR
Filmed from inside two of the most active therapeutic feeding centers in Yemen, HUNGER WARD documents two female health care workers fighting to thwart the spread of starvation against the backdrop of a forgotten war. The film provides an unflinching portrait of Dr. Aida Alsadeeq and Nurse Mekkia Mahdi as they try to save the lives of hunger-stricken children within a population on the brink of famine.
An unflinching look at hunger's toll on the children of war-torn Yemen
In March 2018, the UN reported that 10 million Yemenis were one step away from famine and that hunger is threatening an entire generation. Borne out of a sense of urgency at the sustained civilian suffering caused by the human-caused famine in Yemen, we embedded with a team of doctors and nurses working at Therapeutic Feeding Centers (TFCs) treating those most at risk of starvation.
Filmed from inside two of the most active therapeutic feeding centers in Yemen, HUNGER WARD documents two women health care workers fighting to thwart the spread of starvation against the backdrop of a forgotten war. The film provides an unflinching portrait of Dr. Aida Alsadeeq and Nurse Mekkia Mahdi as they try to save the lives of hunger-stricken children within a population on the brink of famine.
The film bears witness to the unfolding tragedy with a cinematic eye – thus rendering horror watchable, and deepening empathy for our subjects and awareness of the significant civilian suffering
resulting from the current conflict.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
I believe that the most compelling films often emerge from a deep and abiding belief that - simply put – they must be done.
But is a passion to tell a compelling story and the craftsmanship to execute it enough? Five years ago, I decided it wasn’t. Despite a career of producing and directing documentary films that I felt were compelling statements on contemporary issues of our time, I came to believe they were not reaching a great enough audience nor activating sufficient change.
So I changed my approach to center on a single, core principle: empathy. I believe that if we can generate empathy for others it becomes exceedingly difficult to create barriers. I call this approach Humanitarian Cinema and focused my next two films on studying the global refugee and displaced persons crisis with a cinematic eye and rendering films capable of eliciting empathy for the burgeoning refugee and IDP (internally displaced person) community.
The first two films of this Humanitarian Cinema trilogy were 50 Feet from Syria and LIFEBOAT. HUNGER WARD is the third and is borne out of a sense of urgency at the sustained civilian suffering caused by the human-caused famine in Yemen.
The film documents the human cost of the on-going conflict in the country and will serve to catalyze debate surrounding a largely forgotten war.
We are striving to create a film that activates both the heart and the intellect while simultaneously laying bare American complicity in the current civilian deaths in Yemen. We believe bringing to an audience the specter of a human-caused, preventable famine made possible by American tax dollars will ultimately strengthen the call for legislative reform surrounding U.S. military assistance to the Middle East.
(** A B H P)
Im Jemen droht Hungersnot: Landen die Huthis auf Terrorliste?
Im Jemen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel hat sich das zusammengebraut, was Beobachter als «perfekten Sturm» beschreiben: Ein bewaffneter Konflikt mit inzwischen 128'000 Kriegstoten. Weiter starben 131'000 Menschen wegen eines Mangels an Lebensmitteln oder der schlechten Gesundheitsversorgung.
Drei Viertel der Bevölkerung leben nach Schätzungen der Weltbank in Armut. Dazu kommen eine kollabierte Wirtschaft, Cholera, knappes Trinkwasser, Überschwemmungen und eine drohende Hungersnot - von der Corona-Pandemie mal ganz abgesehen.
Ausgerechnet diesen bettelarmen Staat könnte Donald Trump in seinen letzten Wochen als US-Präsident zum Spielball seiner Aussenpolitik machen. Trump plane, die jemenitischen Huthi-Rebellen vor dem Ende seiner Amtszeit am 20. Januar als Terrororganisation einzustufen, schreibt das Magazin «Foreign Policy».
Solch ein Schritt gegen die mächtige schiitische Miliz ist seit Monaten im Gespräch. Nun könnte er Trumps Zunder werden in einer «Politik der verbrannten Erde», zitiert das Magazin einen Diplomaten.
Die Vereinten Nationen und humanitäre Helfer schlagen Alarm. Denn die «Unterstützer Gottes» (Ansar Allah) beherrschen weite Teile des Landes und haben faktisch einen Staat im Staat errichtet. 70 bis 80 Prozent der Bewohner des Jemens leben in von den Huthis kontrollierten Gegenden.
Sollten die Huthis auf der US-Terrorliste landen, würde die Arbeit von Organisationen schwierig bis unmöglich. «Ich könnte für schlichte humanitäre Hilfe kriminalisiert oder strafrechtlich verfolgt werden», sagt eine Helferin. NRC und andere Organisationen müssen mit den Huthis verhandeln, um etwa Lebensmittel, Wasser oder Medizin ins Land bringen zu können.
Auch die Importe aus dem Ausland - der Jemen importiert 90 Prozent seiner Lebensmittel - könnten versiegen. Händler, Banken, Lieferanten und Versicherungen könnten ihre Geschäfte aus Sorge vor US-Sanktionen einstellen.
Auch die für viele überlebenswichtige Überweisungen von Verwandten, die als Arbeitsmigranten etwa in Saudi-Arabien leben, würden gekappt. Andere Staaten könnten ihre Hilfszahlungen ebenfalls aussetzen. Von den benötigten 3,4 Milliarden Dollar für humanitäre Hilfen im Jahr 2020 fehlt immer noch mehr als die Hälfte.
Trump könnte all das wenig kümmern. Die USA sehen die Huthi-Rebellen als Handlanger des Irans, der in die Schranken gewiesen werden muss. Der Griff zur Terrorliste könnte ihn in seinen letzten Amtswochen als stark und entschlossen wirken lassen.
Und es wäre ein Abschiedsgeschenk an Saudi-Arabien, das den Iran als Erzfeind betrachtet und im Jemen gegen die Huthis kämpft. Diese hatten ihre Angriffe auf Saudi-Arabien zuletzt wieder verstärkt.
https://www.nau.ch/news/ausland/im-jemen-droht-hungersnot-landen-die-huthis-auf-terrorliste-65830282
(** A B H P)
UN, aid groups warn US against blacklisting Yemen's Houthis
Designating Houthis as terrorist organisation would have far-reaching consequences in Yemen, including halting aid work amid threat of famine
The United Nations is making a last-ditch appeal to the administration of US President Donald Trump regarding the humanitarian situation in Yemen, urging Washington against designating the Houthi rebels as a terrorist organisation, which would derail a $700m aid programme to the country.
On Tuesday, David Beasley, executive director of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), had a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, where he expressed "grave concerns" about blacklisting the Houthi group. Beasley later told the Washington Post that the designation would have an impact on humanitarian aid to the country.
"WFP is deeply concerned about the potential impact of a decision by the US to designate Ansar Allah as a foreign terrorist organisation," a WFP spokesperson told Middle East Eye, using another name for the Houthis.
"It would heighten the gravity of an already severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen."
Beasley also met with US Senator Todd Young, who along with fellow Senators Chris Coons and Chris Murphy advised Pompeo not to move forward with the terrorist designation.
Unicef also expressed alarm at the potential move, without directly mentioning the Trump administration.
"Like all humanitarian organizations operating on the ground, UNICEF would be deeply concerned about any decisions that could compromise the safety of our teams and their efforts to assist vulnerable children and families," a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency that focuses on children told MEE.
Multiple reports say the Trump administration, which sees the Houthis as an Iranian proxy group and is a close ally of Saudi Arabia, is planning to blacklist the group, slap sanctions on its leaders and halt the $700m aid programme to Yemen.
The potential designation aligns with the administration's efforts to assert its "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran in its last weeks of office, before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on 20 January.
While Beasley expressed to Pompeo the need for securing sanctions waivers in order to allow aid groups to continue their work, a terrorist designation would have far greater consequences for the country.
Scott Paul, the humanitarian policy lead at Oxfam America, said that a foreign terrorist organisation designation would create a situation in which all aid work would be criminalised, and no licences or authorisations for aid work would be available.
Paul noted that the US government's failure to issue licences for humanitarian assistance to Somalia in 2011 helped contribute to a famine that took the lives of a quarter-million Somalis.
And in Yemen, where the threat of famine is rising, aid organisations are worried about an even more disastrous situation.
"The final analysis boils down to whether it’s worth sparking the largest famine in recent decades in order to engage in high-profile name-calling," Paul wrote on Twitter.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yemen-un-aid-groups-warn-us-blacklisting-houthis
and
(** B P)
Trump admin debates labelling Yemen's Houthis terrorists — aid groups warn thousands face famine
"All of the systems around them have been decimated," a senior aid charity leader said.
Trump administration officials are locked in an internal debate about whether to label Houthi rebels in Yemen as a terrorist organization, as aid groups and U.N. officials warn that the move could trigger a humanitarian disaster in a country that has now spent five years at war, four people familiar with the discussions told NBC News.
Officials at USAID and at the State Department have in recent days pushed back against Secretary Mike Pompeo’s plan to designate the Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen as a foreign terrorist organization, arguing it could severely disrupt the delivery of food and other emergency aid to a country already teetering on the brink of famine, a senior administration official, a former state department official, a congressional aide and a member of an international humanitarian aid organization said.
USAID has drafted a detailed analysis of the possible damaging impact of the move, a congressional aide said, and the agency’s chief John Barsa personally appealed to Pompeo this week not to carry out the decision according to a former State Department Official briefed on the meeting.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker flew to the region this week and was due to hold talks in Oman and Saudi Arabia. A Senior Administration Official, a former State Department official and a global humanitarian aid worker briefed on the discussions said Schenker was exploring possible alternatives to designating the Houthis as terrorists, including blacklisting individual leaders or key figures in the group. Both Barsa and Schenker were brought into their positions by the Trump Administration.
“At every level below Pompeo in the State Department people are making every effort to either slow this down or at least ensure that it is not an FTO [foreign terrorist organization] designation,” the former State Department Official said. “We now see actual political appointees who are Iran hawks but understand ‘Oh wait, this is really damaging.’”
It is unclear whether Secretary Pompeo will be moved by the appeals. Supporters view the designation of the Tehran-backed Yemeni rebels as part of the U.S.' “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran and a departing blow to Iranian influence in the middle east and expected efforts by the future Biden administration to re-enter a nuclear agreement.
Unlike with al-Shabab, the Houthis control government ministries and infrastructure in Yemen, including the main airport and ports. That could make it virtually impossible for aid groups to do their work without running afoul of U.S. sanctions.
Critics say the move could undermine any diplomatic effort to broker peace talks, as a U.N. official or other international envoy could face possible legal prosecution for interacting with the Houthis – by Abigail Williams
and
(** B P)
Trump’s Parting Gift To Biden: An Even Worse Catastrophe In Yemen
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is considering a difficult-to-reverse step that would torpedo humanitarian operations and prolong the country’s civil war.
As one of its final foreign policy acts in office, the Trump administration could take a step that would push millions of people in Yemen into starvation and prolong that country’s civil war. And President-elect Joe Biden would find it extremely difficult to reverse.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is considering designating the Houthis, the Yemeni militia that rules over the vast majority of the country’s population, as a terrorist organization. The move would fit the Trump administration’s strategy to weaken Iran, which supports the Houthis, and would thrill Iranian adversaries like Saudi Arabia.
It would also be devastating for Yemenis.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, humanitarian groups and national security analysts wants Pompeo to refrain, saying his decision would be tremendously destabilizing.
“Creating new, additional obstacles to the delivery of food and medical aid — during a global pandemic — is not in the best interest of the United States, our regional allies and partners or the people of Yemen,” Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) argued in a joint press release on Nov. 20. Murphy and Young are key congressional voices on Middle East matters and Coons is a close Biden ally.
“While the Biden administration can reverse this, the damage done in the interim will be deadly and will add a massive burden to the already overstretched response,” Scott Paul, humanitarian policy lead at the aid organization Oxfam America, told HuffPost via email after that report.
President Donald Trump and Pompeo have until Jan. 20 to make a decision, though they are expected to do so in the coming days.
If Pompeo moves ahead with his designation, such costs will quickly climb even more, humanitarian experts say.
With the Houthis on the State Department’s foreign terror organization list, anyone who interacts with them risks being investigated by the U.S. government on suspicion of providing some form of support to the militia. That would be a major concern for aid groups, but many would try to find a work-around. For other crucial institutions that are less altruistic ― banks, shipping lines, insurers ― the new situation would probably deter any kind of work in Yemen.
Those that continue to funnel supplies into the country will likely demand a premium, particularly for shipments to the areas controlled by the Houthis ― where upward of 70% of Yemenis live.
A designation “will cause increases in commodity prices, the most important measure of how bad the economy and living conditions are for Yemenis,” Paul said, adding that such a listing has no wiggle room for humanitarian exemptions.
“I haven’t been able to sleep since I read this [might happen] because I’m just terrified,” said Aisha Jumaan, who runs the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation and has family in the country. “You’re talking about a population where 80% need aid, they’re surviving on whatever little there is, and we’re going to say we’re going to cut your last lifeline.”
Dave Harden, a former top official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, believes Pompeo could cause “a full collapse of the economy and complete devaluation of the currency,” he tweeted, while effectively ending imports of food and vital sanitation products by United Nations agencies like the World Food Programme and World Health Organization.
Aid groups still operating in Yemen would be handling a far more vulnerable population with far fewer resources, as donors would likely become more nervous about potentially breaching U.S. law, Paul said.
“Almost no organization in the world is willing to go up against the U.S. government in order to do business ... and aid organizations know if they try to disregard the designation, they could be putting themselves in a position of the U.S. government coming down legally against them and saying you’ll need to suffer the consequences,” said Annelle Sheline, a researcher at the Quincy Institute think tank.
“The terrorist list is supposed to be about a threat posed to the United States ... at which point does it become a farce and a legalistic, bureaucratic, Kafka-esque designation that people die as a result of?” she continued.
Setting A Trap For Biden
The ostensible goal for Trump and Pompeo is to pressure the Houthis and their chief backer, Iran, to surrender some of their influence in Yemen and eventually cut a deal with the U.S.-friendly forces in the country. But the designation wouldn’t have that effect, experts believe ― and it could play into the Iranians’ hands.
For Trump’s successor, the step would cause an immediate dilemma. Biden would either have to watch Yemen deteriorate, drawing international alarm and criticism, or quickly withdraw the designation ― and face Republican accusations that he is soft on Iran and its friends. That would be especially toxic as Biden tries to resurrect the Obama-era accord to limit Iran’s nuclear program, one of his most pressing priorities.
Mary McCord, a Georgetown Law professor and former national security official at the Justice Department, told HuffPost there are three ways the designation could be removed: by the Houthis successfully challenging it in court, Congress revoking it or the future Secretary of State killing it.
The former two are extremely unlikely, particularly if, as expected, the GOP holds the Senate under a Biden presidency. So instead, Biden’s top diplomat ― likely to be Tony Blinken ― would have to assess a reversal and all the political and humanitarian concerns it involves.
“The sad thing about all of this is that [the Trump] administration is doing it because it wants to please the Saudis and stick it to Iran and the Yemeni people don’t come into any of the decision-making processes,” Jumaan said. “Thirty million people are going to be affected. It’s criminal.” – by Akbar Shahid Ahmed
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-yemen-designation_n_5fca9306c5b6787f2a97c771
(** B H)
Soil, the heart of the earth: Meet Yemen's farmers, feeding a nation
Once abundant in cereal crops, Yemen now imports nearly 90 per cent of its food.
Now more than ever, safeguarding local farming is critical.
UNDP Yemen, the World Bank, the Social Development Fund (SFD), and the Public Works Project (PWP) have partnered together to protect over 23,000 hectares of agricultural land across Yemen. Farmers have been supported with training and equipment that helps to protect their soil and their crop yield, ensuring they can maintain their livelihoods and provide affordable food to Yemenis in a time of looming famine.
Captivated by its beauty and potential to give life, but faced with an unrelenting climate, increasing desertification, and a market marked by war and economic failure – Yemeni farmers had to develop sophisticated methods of water storage and adapt to the most difficult of circumstances.
UNDP and partners recognize the importance of improving farming techniques, training, and new equipment to help reduce the financial burden for farmers.
Together, UNDP and our local partner – the Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Services (SMEPS) – have supported more than 7,200 Yemeni farmers through training in modern farming practices.
Land was previously ploughed with the help of cows and camels, but today farmers use tilling machines to save time and effort, while drip irrigation has replaced the traditional practice of flooding the fields.
“Back in the 1970s, all the land in Yemen was planted with grains,” explains Asrar, 45, a mother of seven and sole income earner for her family of 14. “The cultivated areas have become smaller and many areas have become arid due to the high prices of diesel, machines, and seeds,” she adds. “If we don't cultivate it, the land will become arid. But if planted with grains, we could revive the soil.”
Mahmoud, 47, a farmer and father of two, asks “If agriculture is not important, then Yemen's population will perish…and then how will we feed ourselves? How will we meet our basic needs?”
“The survival of the Yemeni people depends on agriculture,” states Shukri, 49, a farmer from Al-Fyoush in Lahj. “My whole family has depended on farming and livestock breeding from the day we were born. When we sleep on this soil, you can’t imagine how happy it makes us, how it feels…it feels better than a bed in a five-star hotel,” he describes. Shukri was an engineer in Sana’a but the war forced him to flee back to his ancestral lands to once again take up the profession of his forefathers.
UNDP’s partnerships have rehabilitated irrigation channels and torrents across Yemen, built retaining and protective walls on agriculture terraces, as well as spate irrigation systems made of stone and cement abutments.
Rehabilitated infrastructure and new skills offered through UNDP and its partners, have introduced ways to reduce the cost of fuel and water for farmers, improved crop productivity and income, created almost 50,000 new jobs, and resulted in a reduced price tag for essential food items.
In many regions across Yemen, the price of diesel fuel used to power large water pumps and irrigate crops has doubled. The cost of seeds, fertilizer, and other resources also continues to rise. “We want society to benefit from our harvest, but when the price for fuel is high so too is the price we must charge for our produce,” explains Amer. “When we are provided with solar energy systems, we will be able to reduce costs and access water more readily.”
Despite all the challenges, Yemen’s farmers persevere, staying steadfast in their willingness to learn new skills to ensure a bountiful crop and affordable prices for the fellow country persons in a food insecure nation with looming famine (with photos)
https://undpyemen.exposure.co/soil-the-heart-of-the-earth
(** B H)
Inside Yemen: A hospital on the frontline of Yemen's food crisis
In the halls of Al-Sadaqah hospital, a child is crying. Two-month-old Abdullah is being carried into a blue-painted assessment room to be weighed and measured. He is shrunken and his stomach swollen by severe acute malnutrition. His face is a shriveled mask of pain. The doctors lie him against a wooden measuring device and then weigh him in the arms of his mother. He is only 50 cm long and 2.5 kilos—half the weight of a healthy child his size.
Al-Sadaqah is on the front line of Yemen’s food crisis. Years of war and rampant inflation have brought famine and hunger to the country’s children. The hospital, a hulking Soviet-built edifice in the southern city of Aden, is where mothers bring their malnourished sons and daughters in a desperate bid to save them.
Abdullah and his mother, Ghada Hassan, are from an underdeveloped area of breeze-block dwellings on the outskirts of Aden. “I’m trying to breastfeed, but there is not enough milk,” says Ghada, who wears an enveloping black niqab. As she speaks, the power keeps cutting off—electricity has to be provided through expensive generators, as the local authorities generally only provide four hours’ worth of power a day. Aden is filled with the wreckage of conflict: five years ago, it was torn apart by a four-month siege, and in 2018 and 2019 it suffered from a new round of bitter fighting.
Some families travel for days to reach Al-Sadaqah, spending whatever precious money they have on the journey to the hospital to save their children. Yemen’s food crisis is now overwhelming. As the war grinds on, some 13 million people in the country risk starvation next year. Without the assistance provided by the World Food Programme, 20.1 million people in Yemen would not have reliable access to sufficient food.
Clinics in further-flung areas of Yemen are overwhelmed at a time when funding has decreased drastically due to COVID-19. In addition, coronavirus has made hospital admissions even more complicated and added strain to an already shattered system. Some clinics have reported a 60 per cent increase in malnutrition cases in the last year. A doctor visiting Al-Sadaqah from Abyan, a conflict zone north-east of Aden, says that five years ago, at most five children suffering from malnutrition would be admitted to his clinic each month. But now they see around 40 new cases each month. “There are lots of displaced families, there’s no money, there’s no food,” he says.
Dr. Maha inspects Abdullah after he is measured; she shakes her head. It is abnormal to see such a malnourished child so young, even on this ward, and the situation clearly pains her. “The child is a very little baby, OK. But the ribs are visible,” she says. “The abdomen is protruding, and the legs and arms are floating. You can see even the scapula behind his shoulder.” She says that the diarrhoea and fever that caused Ghada to bring Abdullah in were symptoms of potentially dangerous malnutrition.
A few days later, another child has been admitted to the ward. Four-year-old Abdo is from a village near Hudaydah, close to one of Yemen’s many front lines. The armed group that controls the area Abdo lives in also controls the single entry and exit point to his village. His father and uncle have lost the little work they had as handymen before the war. “During the war, everything changed for the worse. We were displaced,” says Yahya, Abdo’s uncle, who is in his forties with a thin mustache. The town was shelled and bombed heavily. “We live in a shack and we don’t even have clean water to drink.”
Abdo’s family subsist on handouts. He is one of six siblings. “Before the war we could eat normal food, like other people,” says Yahya, who has eight children. “We ate fish, meat, milk, vegetables, fruits—many things.” But now the family survive on a single meal a day of bread, tea and the occasional glass of milk. “Before the war, prices were cheap, but after the war began, things became too expensive.”
Yahya explains that Abdo started passing diarrhoea 20 days ago. “We went to lots of private clinics in our area,” he explains, but nobody knew what to do. Six days ago, Abdo started having problems with his eyes, but once again the doctors in their village could not help him (photos)
https://unocha.exposure.co/inside-yemen
(** B P)
The UAE’s Grand Plans for Yemen’s Socotra Island
After the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) seized control of the island of Socotra last June, various claims have emerged over Abu Dhabi’s vision for the island. As it seeks to consolidate its control for its geopolitical aims, its policies are causing clear divisions on the island.
Since the United Arab Emirates-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) seized control of Yemen’s remote island of Socotra in June and toppled the local authorities, many unverified allegations of the UAE’s activities on the island via its Yemeni client faction have emerged.
With Abu Dhabi’s lack of transparency over its policies in Socotra, its true objectives may appear difficult to decipher. Emirati media organizations have mostly presented its actions as solely “humanitarian.” However, like elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, the UAE has adopted a benevolent smokescreen to conceal its true expansionist objectives.
And the UAE has entirely propped up and empowered the STC across southern Yemen.
This aids its objectives of controlling south Yemen’s ports, establishing a wider sphere of influence across the Horn of Africa, and bolstering its global maritime trade through the Indian Ocean and Bab el Mandeb. Control of the island would enable Abu Dhabi to build a military base and protect its port infrastructure in southern Yemen and the Horn of Africa, even though this would also erode the island’s natural beauty.
As pressure on the UAE’s role in Socotra soon waned, last June’s lasting takeover confirms that Abu Dhabi had successfully outmaneuvered Riyadh in their rivalry over Yemen. Saudi Arabia, which had previously opposed the UAE’s occupation efforts, seems to have now accepted it.
However, the STC’s seizure of Socotra has triggered further tensions, as many residents oppose its attempts to “occupy” the island.
“Locals are continuing to protest the worsening situation while demanding the return of the local government which was forced out after the STC’s takeover,” Fuad Rajeh, an independent Yemeni researcher, told Inside Arabia. “Socotra is divided, and this is not good for an archipelago which used to be stable and peaceful.”
The STC in early November reportedly established an office on the island where northern Yemenis coming from outside the island must register as “foreigners.” A source cited by the Anadolu News Agency in the Middle East Monitor said that “the office records the data of Yemenis who come from outside Socotra, grant them work permits on the island, and treat them as foreigners despite their Yemeni nationality.”
This follows numerous attempts from the STC to expel northerners from south Yemen
The STC apparently seeks to crush opposition towards its control of the island, and ultimately deliver the UAE’s own projects for Socotra.
“The UAE troops are now controlling Socotra’s seaport, airport, and the sea amid reports UAE companies are fishing without permission from the government, or rather stealing Yemeni fish,” Rajeh told Inside Arabia.
Socotran tribal leader Issa Salem bin Yaqut claimed in a statement in September that the UAE and Saudi Arabia let Israel into the island, and accused Abu Dhabi and Riyadh of “destroying the charming and rare environmental landmarks on Socotra Island and establishing camps amid a terrible international silence.”
This followed allegations that the UAE and Israel that month established a spy base together in Socotra, after their normalization of relations.
After all, the UAE has searched elsewhere for external support to recognize its control over Socotra.
And since Socotra is not a priority for the international community, the UAE may gradually edge further towards cementing its control of the island in the future – by Jonathan Fenton-Harvey
https://insidearabia.com/the-uae-grand-plans-for-yemens-socotra-island/
(** B K P)
Britain sent Saudi Arabia thousands of spare parts for warplanes amid arms embargo
The UK military supplied 2,323 spare parts for Tornado fighter jets to an arms company in Saudi Arabia last year, despite a court order against exporting weapons for use in the Yemen war, Declassified UK has found.
British arms company BAE Systems maintains the Saudi air force’s Tornado fleet which bombs Yemen, the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.
Exports of Tornado spares were allowed to continue because the scheme began before a court ordered an embargo on new licences.
Saudi planes bombing Yemen received 2,323 spare parts from the UK military last year, according to the government’s annual report into strategic export controls, which was published four months later than usual due to the coronavirus.
The long-awaited report shows that supplies to Saudi Arabia’s air force and navy continued despite a court order in June 2019 banning new export licences for use in Yemen.
Tornado spare parts were exempt from the arms embargo because they were covered by licences issued prior to the court ruling. The equipment was diverted from the Royal Air Force (RAF), which stopped flying its own Tornado fleet in March 2019.
Saudi Arabia continues to use Tornados on combat operations in Yemen, having purchased the planes from BAE Systems in the 1980s and 1990s under the notoriously corrupt Al-Yamamah series of arms deals.
The intense fighting requires a constant stream of spare parts. Some experts say the war would stop within weeks without British supplies to the Saudi air force.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels recently shot down a Saudi Tornado, leading British military officials to “verbally discuss the possibility of offering technical assistance” to help Saudi Arabia investigate the crash, although none was ultimately requested.
When asked in Parliament whether the British military had helped to maintain the jet that crashed, Defence Minister James Heappey said, “RAF personnel do not service Royal Saudi Air Force Tornado aircraft.”
In another attempt to downplay the extent of British support for the Saudi air force, the government has told Parliament that none of the Saudi Tornados has returned to the UK for maintenance since the Yemen war began in 2015.
However, Declassified has found from a freedom of information request that the RAF gave Saudi air force technicians a bespoke training course on Tornado maintenance at RAF Cosford in England last year, in addition to the export of thousands of spare parts.
There are also RAF instructors on secondment to BAE Systems who provide training support to Saudi Tornado aircrew.
Sending spare parts to Saudi forces appears to be routine. Official documents show that 575 Tornado spares were sent to Saudi Arabia in 2018, along with 156 missiles and missile launchers. These are thought to include Paveway, Brimstone, Storm Shadow and ALARM missiles.
HMRC has told Declassified that it had a minimum of two officers present during the DSEI arms fair in London last year, which is one of the biggest such trade shows in the world. One company, Condor, had its stand shut down after it was found to be displaying banned electro-shock equipment.
However, HMRC refused to tell Declassified whether it had conducted a criminal investigation into Condor or issued the firm with any penalty, citing privacy exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Government’s Joint Export Control Unit, which also enforces the licensing regime in addition to HMRC, has just eight inspectors to conduct “compliance visits” at arms factories.
They made 554 site checks in 2019, and found that 43% of exporters were not fully complying with the licensing regime during routine checks – by Phil Miller
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Coronavirus und Seuchen / Most important: Coronavirus and epidemics
(A H)
One new case of COVID-19 reported in Lahj
http://en.adenpress.news/news/30686
(A H)
No new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported
http://en.adenpress.news/news/30677
(** B H P)
Coronavirus in war zones: Syria and Yemen
Politicization, poor leadership response, lack of transparency and a plethora of competing concerns characterize both countries’ struggles
No one has exact data on the impact of the novel coronavirus in either Syria or Yemen, due to purposeful government obfuscation. For statistics on numbers of cases and deaths, Syrian and Yemeni researchers are reliant on medical experts on the ground to give them a snapshot of what is going on.
Based on these sources, it appears that cases in Syria are surging while in Yemen, they are diminishing.
In addition to the lack of precise data due to purposeful official vagueness, Syria and Yemen share commonalities in terms of country response and civilian perception.
Authorities in both countries have politicized COVID-19 to fit their own political agendas and have been incompetent in their response to the disease. In addition, both countries’ medical facilities and health care professionals are targets for all sides and their infrastructure is falling apart. Lastly, for many civilians, problems such as hunger, violence and other deadly diseases have eclipsed COVID-19 in terms of concern.
In Yemen, official silence by some combined with lack of resources and ineptness makes determining the exact number of coronavirus cases impossible.
“Nobody knows how many people got sick in the Houthi [rebel controlled] areas. In the government areas, they announced figures that are completely unrealistic numbers, like in the 2,000 to 3,000 range,” Abdulghani Al-Iryani, a senior researcher at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies told The Media Line.
“My estimate of the mortality is 50,000 to 80,000 deaths for the entire country. There are no statistics; the figure is based on contacts with doctors and frontline workers,” he added.
He says that in Yemen’s capital city, Sanaa, over 100 medical professionals have died as a result of the coronavirus.
However, Al-Iryani says that even though the exact number of cases is unknown, there are far fewer cases now than there were earlier.
“COVID wards in Sanaa and Aden are empty now. People have stopped talking about COVID. They don’t consider it to be an issue,” he said.
The senior researcher asserts that the financial repercussions from the coronavirus will have a much larger effect on people’s lives.
“Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis who work in Saudi Arabia lost their jobs. There will be more people dying of malnourishment and famine because of the economic impact of COVID than those who die directly of COVID,” Al-Iryani said.
The fact that cases appear to be going down seems almost miraculous given how little COVID precautions are being observed in Yemen.
“Yemen defied every measure against COVID-19: There was no quarantine, attempts to lock down failed. … Many Yemenis pretty much went about their business as if COVID did not exist,” Al-Dawsari said – – by Tara Kavaler
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/coronavirus-in-war-zones-syria-and-yemen-651350
(* B H P)
Coronavirus crisis has brought even greater tragedy to crisis-stricken Yemen
The coronavirus crisis has dealt a new hammer blow to the economy of Yemen. It has left big impact on a country that was already torn apart by civil war, disease, and want. The country’s epidemic has had multiple effects in public health as well as among the general population. It has been, in effect, a crisis on top of a pre-existing crisis that Yemenis are experiencing now – conflicts and severe health challenges already have pervaded many regions of the country since the Saudi led-coalition began waging several airstrikes in Yemen in 2015.
In a place so often afflicted by crises even before the pandemic, our country and our society simply do not have the means to confront the pandemic. Whereas most of governments have taken precautionary measures to reduce the spread of the virus, all of these methods have been extremely difficult to implement in Yemen. Many things taken for granted elsewhere have proven to be a challenge too far for a system that is already under strain, from establishing specialist hospitals and quarantine centers to providing support to employees, individuals and companies as well as spreading awareness through various TV channels.
The result is a terrible feeling of helplessness and of powerlessness. Our ability to alleviate the severity of this epidemic and reduce the number of lives lost has been constrained at every moment. This has deepened the economic impact and prolonged the suffering.
This terrible conflict and now the coronavirus pandemic have had a particular impact on the lives of Yemenis and its people, who often go abroad in search of better earnings to send home to their families back home. The World Bank reported in its latest statement on the economic situation in Yemen that it expected global remittances to drop sharply by about 20% in 2020 due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. It attributed the expected decline, which will be the largest decline in recent history, to the drop in the wages of migrant workers, who are the most vulnerable to job losses and wages in their host countries.
As a consequence, the remittances sent to low- and middle-income countries are expected to decline by an estimated $445 billion. This will be a devastating loss of financial resources for many workers and their families across the world – and Yemen is also caught up in this vicious cycle. With so many Yemenis working abroad to try and provide for their families, this global trend is also having a cruel impact in Yemen itself
https://reaction.life/coronavirus-crisis-has-brought-even-greater-tragedy-to-crisis-stricken-yemen/
My comment: World-wide anti-Corona measures actually have a greater impact than Corona itself.
(* A H)
Aden kicks off anti-polio campaign
The Ministry of Public Health and Population launched in Aden on Saturday, a polio campaign covering 13 districts.
The 3-day national polio immunization campaign targets more than 1.2 million children under the age of 5 years.
The campaign is funded by World Health Organization, UNICEF, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance and King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief).
http://en.adenpress.news/news/30679
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* A K P)
Interactive Map of Yemen War
(* A K)
SAUDI-LED FORCES ARE ABOUT TO LOSE ANOTHER STRONGHOLD IN CENTRAL YEMEN (Map update)
https://southfront.org/saudi-led-forces-are-about-to-lose-another-stronghold-in-central-yemen/
EXPLOSIONS ROCKED YEMENI SANAA AIRPORT (Map update9
https://southfront.org/explosions-rocked-yemeni-sanaa-airport/
(* A K P)
Houthis say Gov't, coalition losing war as 300 more Gov't troops defect
The Ansar Allah group, known as the Houthis, said on Saturday the forces of the internationally recognised and a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen are losing the war and that its forces are advancing on all warfronts.
During a reception for 300 pro-government troops who defected to the group, the group's military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahya Sarea, said the aggression forces are breathing their last breath after suffering heavy losses at the hands of the national army and the popular committees.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-21641.html
(B H)
Die Katastrophe: Dass es so weitergeht
Die Prognosen der UNO für Syrien und den Jemen werden jedes Jahr schlechter; allein: es interessiert niemanden mehr.
Und je mehr Jahre ins Land ziehen, desto weniger interessiert sich noch irgendjemand für den Konflikt. Syrien? War das was?
Den Jemeniten ergeht es schon seit Jahren so. Da hat UNICEF gerade auch eine Erklärung herausgegeben: Inzwischen ist die Zahl vom Hunger bedrohter Kinder auf zwölf Millionen gestiegen. Vergangenes Jahr war noch von elf Millionen die Rede. Nur eine Million mehr pro Jahr? Das ist doch gar nicht so viel, oder?
Nur so zum Vergleich: Österreich hat knapp neun Millionen Einwohner.
https://jungle.world/blog/von-tunis-nach-teheran/2020/12/die-katastrophe-dass-es-so-weitergeht
(B H K P)
Yemen Forgotten
Yemen has turned into a problematic humanitarian crisis and has not changed for the better while the world has moved on. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, food insecurity is expected to rise from 3.6 to 5 million by 2021. It is about time that the global community at large pools its resources to help for the cause and protect Yemen from further instability.
https://nation.com.pk/06-Dec-2020/yemen-forgotten
(B P)
News Analysis: Will detente in Qatar crisis be game changer for Yemen's years-long conflict?
With announced "fruitful" diplomatic efforts to end the years-long Gulf crisis involving Qatar, Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries, some Yemeni political observers believe this will have a positive impact on the situation in war-torn Yemen, while others played down its significance.
Nabil al-Bukiri, director of the Arab Forum for Studies and Development, told Xinhua that Yemen's issue was largely affected by the Gulf crisis during the past years.
After Qatar withdrew from the Gulf alliance because of the Gulf crisis, it used its prominent media outlets to further fuel the conflict instead of seeking for solutions, al-Bukiri explained.
The Gulf crisis also created "divisions among the Yemeni political parties and badly complicated the efforts of Arab coalition to help the government to restore state facilities from the militia's grip," he said.
"Ending the Gulf rift will be in the best interests of Yemen because this Arab division wasted many efforts and largely benefited Iran and its militias in the region," al-Bukiri concluded.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-12/06/c_139566592.htm
My comment: The analysts Xinhua quotes here are voices of the pro-UAE, pro-separarist, anti-Hadi government, anti-Qatar, anti-Turkey, anti-Houthi faction. What might be real is that a solution to the Gulf conflict would be positive example for Yemen.
(A K)
Jemen: Ein Schiff wurde außerhalb des Landes angegriffen
Ein Schiff, das laut der Website des britischen Seehandels (UKMTO) zehn Tage nach einer Explosion auf einem Öltanker vor der Küste Saudi-Arabiens vom vom Krieg abgerissenen Jemen angegriffen wurde.
Unter Berufung auf Boote in der Region sagte das UKMTO, der Vorfall sei am späten Freitag aufgetreten.
https://www.athina984.gr/de/2020/12/05/yemeni-ploio-dechthike-epithesi-sta-anoikta-tis-choras/
(A K)
UK Maritime Trade Operations says aware of attack on vessel off Yemen coast
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) naval authority said on Saturday it was aware of an attack on a vessel off the coast of Yemen.
It did not provide any further details.
Maps: https://twitter.com/Alsakaniali/status/1335054149155696640
https://twitter.com/Ambrey_Intel/status/1335283102374047760
(B H K)
‘Nobody’s talking about it:’ B.C. man’s mission to raise awareness about the crisis in Yemen
A B.C. man is on a mission to inform people about what the United Nations is calling the worst humanitarian crisis in the world with more than 24 million people in need.
Wyle Baoween refers to what’s happening in Yemen as the “forgotten war” and said while there is a community of Yemeni refugees in the province and Canadian organizations who are providing aid, very few people know about what’s happening in his homeland.
“It’s a situation where millions of people are affected, 85 per cent of the populations are in need for humanitarian aid and nobody’s talking about it,” Baoween told Global News.
Baoween is from Yemen and moved to B.C. in 2011 when the political state of unrest was starting to ramp up. He is now the CEO of the Canadian consulting firm HRx.
“We don’t have that coverage in media, we don’t have that support, it’s really hard to get information from the country, the cases of kids dying from malnutrition are just so sad, so sad,” Baoween said
https://globalnews.ca/news/7502633/yemen-humanitarian-crisis/
(A P)
EU and OECD partner to promote economic resilience in Yemen
The European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have signed a joint agreement to promote economic resilience in Yemen.
“I am delighted to announce this new EU support for Yemen, which will enhance economic resilience, while supporting institution-building and coordination of assistance”, says the Ambassador of the European Union to Yemen, Mr. Hans Grundberg. “This initiative is a clear signal of the EU’s continued commitment to support Yemen in stepping back from the brink of economic collapse”.
“The OECD stands ready to offer its expertise and good practices, jointly with the EU, to help Yemen enhance its economic resilience, “says Andreas Schaal, Director, OECD Global Relations Secretariat.
My comment: Those who supply arms and support to keep the Yemen war going are playing benefactors.
(* B K pH)
New report details the horrifying results of the Saudi-led war against Yemen
Over 16,802 Yemeni civilians, including 3,753 children, 2,361 women and 10,688 men, have been killed by the Saudi-led coalition war on Yemen between. March 2015 and last June, according to a report of national team in charge of dealing with the international and regional experts.
The head of the national team, Abdel-AIlah Hajar, stated in a press conference held on Wednesday in Sana’a, that what is announced in the first report is the most prominent crimes and violations committed by the coalition.
The report explained that over 3,553 public and private educational facilities were damaged and about 402 schools were destroyed completely due to the coalition airstrikes on Yemen.
In the health field, the coalition warplanes have destroyed 483 hospitals, facilities, and health facilities, which led to 60% of the hospitals suspending services.
The report indicated that the war and the siege imposed by the coalition have led to the failure 362 imedicine shipments, including 12 for incurable diseases, as well as the closure of 7 dialysis centers out of 28 centers, and the lack of more than 19 types of medical supplies.
The coalition and its blockade also caused 320,000 patients to be unable to receive treatment abroad due to the closure of Sana’a International Airport.
Regarding to infrastructure and service facilities in Yemen, the report of national experts revealed that the coalition intentionally destroyed 14 Yemeni sea and land ports by direct bombardment.
Additionally, about 4,976 km of main roads, 101 bridges and more than 6278 various means of transport have been destroyed completely by the coalition’s air attacks.
The coalition forces completely and partially destroyed more than 472 fuel and gas stations and over 291 trucks carrying oil derivatives in most of the Yemeni provinces.
On the other hand, the report stated about 1,748 air strikes launched by the coalion air forces has destroyed 477 security installations, killed 178 security personnel, and wounded 139 others, in additional to destroying 41 courts and judicial complexes.
It added that the losses of the electricity sector as a result of the aggression have been estimated at billions of dollars.
The report indicated to the coalition fighter jets directly destroyed and damaged more than 131 sports facilities, over 47 media institutions and 28 radio and television transmission centers.
Furthermore, the coalition air forces carried out deliberate military attacks on a number of mosques, archaeological sites, and cultural and tourism structures, with 1,324 mosques and 417 archaeological and historical sites having been destroyed completely.
The report of the experts confirmed that the coalition has used internationally-prohibited weapons such as cluster, sonic, vacuum and phosphorous, against the Yemeni people.
(* C P)
State Politics in Yemen: Antinomies of Nation and State
This article offers a synoptic narrative informed by a political anthropology that retraces the historical genesis of modern nation-state formation in Yemen, and describes the mechanisms of its reproduction as an explanatory prelude to the ultimate political implosion of both the Yemeni state and the national polity in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The article elucidates the trajectory of the state's formation through the following tasks: First, it examines the catalytic factors and forces that structured the relations between the Yemeni state and the national polity, and systematically reviews the institutional and agential consequences in the form of endemic antinomies of governance, which resulted in the permanent structural disarticulation between state and nation. Second, it undertakes a history-embedded analysis of the state's adoption of an existential politics that led to a hybrid political system of elite patronage and mass clientelism. Third, it performs a structural anatomy of the state formation process that culminated in a cabalistic corporatist state exercising a consociational domination over a socio-geographically fragmented polity. And fourth, it assesses the impacts of Yemen's Arab Spring on the likely configuration of the nation-state nexus given the re-emergence of centrifugal forces that are threatening to sunder the nation into multiple regional polities.
https://www.academia.edu/37067891/State_Politics_in_Yemen_Antinomies_of_Nation_and_State
(* B P)
[from 2016:] Durham Middle East Papers Sir William Luce Publication Series Understanding the Yemeni Crisis: The transformation of tribal roles in recent decades Institute for Middle East and Islamic Studies
This paper examines the changing role of tribes in Yemen in relation to the transformation of social structures as the country shifted from a pre- or early-capitalist economy to one based on trade, migration and patronage. It also discusses separately the relationships between tribes and Islamism, as well as tribes and modern political parties.
First I briefly examine some of the debate around the nature of tribes and the wide range of phenomena described as tribal. This will clarify some of the misconceptions and misunderstandings about Yemen in general and its tribes in particular.
This is followed by a description of Yemen’s social structure at the time of the revolutions of the 1960s. This period is indicative of the situation for the preceding century or so. While I do not suggest for a moment that Yemeni society prior to this time was static or enjoying the ‘eternal present’ encountered in much traditional anthropological literature, this period roughly represents a state of affairs prior to the significant social, political and economic transformations which later fundamentally redesigned its social structure.
The third part addresses changes in social structures since the 1970s, and the way in which these structures have fully developed since unification in 1990 as a result of modifications in the nature of the country’s economic base. I will discuss the tensions which have arisen as a result, particularly through the emergence of a single elite combining military, economic and political power, and its impact on tribal relations and the nature of the tribe as a concept.
Finally, I will assess the relevance of these changes in social formations on two of today’ surgent issues, the role of political parties and the importance of jihadism.
I conclude withsome remarks on the extent to which the emerging social forces could contribute to a solution of the country’s current deep crisis – by Helen Lackner
cp2a Saudische Blockade / Saudi blockade
(A K P)
Yemeni Airport Director: Saudi Seeks to Shut Down Sana’a Intl. Airport Through New Airstrikes
The new wave of airstrikes by the so-called Saudi-led coalition on the Sana’a International Airport serves to keep the facility out of service and entertain the absurd notion that it cannot reopen for commercial flights, says the managing director of the airport.
“The allegations made by the coalition against the Sana’a airport are not something new; and are an attempt to mislead world public opinion and provide a justification for repeated attacks on it,” Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network quoted Khaled al-Shayef as saying in a statement released on Sunday.
(A P)
Iran envoy wary of closure of Sana'a Int'l Airport for humanitarian flights
Iranian Ambassador to Yemen in a message expressed outrage at continued closure of Sana'a Airport, calling for open service for the flights carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen exposed to severe shortage of food and medical supplies.
https://en.irna.ir/news/84136353/Iran-envoy-wary-of-closure-of-Sana-a-Int-l-Airport-for-humanitarian
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* B H)
‘Donor fatigue’ is deadly – how the world turned its back on Yemen
Despite the humanitarian crisis reaching devastating lows, the UN and other agencies have had to shut down programmes in Yemen, including food assistance, because they don’t have enough money
Fatigue kills. It is little discussed in regions where wars, disease and hunger stalk communities and homes. But across the world, fatigue is also a silent killer. After years of conflict, and the ugly procession of associated woes that follow, it is hard to keep states, citizens and, crucially, donors interested in the worst humanitarian crises.
As a journalist, it is a challenge to find new ways to tell the stories of the most vulnerable, especially during a global pandemic when readers are facing so many of their own personal problems.
(B H)
Yemen Wheat retail monthly prices in the market Hadramout
(* B H)
Film: The West Asia Post | Child malnutrition soars in Yemen
The Yemen conflict is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. But it is the children of Yemen that are the worst-affected. Children malnutrition is soaring in the war-torn country. This week on the West Asia Post, Ghadi Francis decodes this growing crisis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C29gpNn0w38
(B H)
Jemenhilfe aus Aichach bittet um Unterstützung
Die Verantwortlichen der Aichacher Hilfsorganisation sorgen sich um ihre Schützlinge im Bürgerkriegsland Jemen. Sie appellieren an Freunde und Gönner zu spenden.
„Bitte vergessen Sie uns nicht! “ - Mit einem dramatischen Appell richten sich die Verantwortlichen der Aichacher Hilfsorganisation Jemen-Kinderhilfe und Jemenhilfe Deutschland an ihre Gönner und Mitglieder. Sie machen sich große Sorgen um ihre Schützlinge und Projekte im Bürgerkriegsland Jemen.
Wie die Vereinsvorsitzende Aenne Rappel in ihrem Jahresbericht mitteilt, ste
Rappel zufolge gibt es selbst für Ärzte kaum geeignete Schutzkleidung, nicht genügend Sauerstoff und Betten. Die wenigen noch intakten Krankenhäuser seien deshalb geschlossen oder nehmen keine Corona-Kranken auf. Die Verunsicherung in der Bevölkerung sei groß, es fehle an Aufklärung – mit der Folge, dass unzählige Jemeniten erkrankt oder ohne Hilfe zu Hause gestorben seien.
Ein Mediziner von Ärzte ohne Grenzen berichte, es gebe wohl keine Familie im Land, die nicht von Corona betroffen sei, so Rappel.
Im kleinen, abgelegenen Bergkrankenhaus der Jemenhilfe in Al Mihlaf habe Klinikleiter Arafat Al Sufi bislang von einem Corona-Patienten berichtet, so Rappel. Dieser sei zur weiteren Behandlung in ein Spezialkrankenhaus transportiert worden.
Aufgrund der zunehmenden Corona-Erkrankungen im Land seien viele Medikamente noch teurer geworden und schwerer zu beschaffen.
https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/aichach/Jemenhilfe-aus-Aichach-bittet-um-Unterstuetzung-id58662066.html= https://www.aichacher-zeitung.de/vorort/aichach/krieg-cholera-coronahilfe-fuer-den-jemen;art18,158791
(B H)
Medical errors have increased recently in various governorates, especially in areas controlled by the Houthi group. The family of Yarmouk Saree, who died as a result of a medical error, civilians in Sana'a demanded Houthi authorities to intervene and form a committee to investigate his death.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1335678376368025606
(* B H K P)
Saudi invasion of Yemen has causes outbreaks of diseases not seen before in the country
Dr. Abdullatif Hussein Abu Talib, chairman of the Al-Thawra General Hospital Authority, has confirmed that the ongoing Saudi-American aggression against Yemen has caused the spread of very serious diseases that were not known in the country before.
“New blood cancers, thyroid gland, stomach, respiratory system and congenital malformations of children and fetuses [have appeared]” Dr. Abdullatif Hussein Abu Talib told al-Thawra Newspaper.
Dr. Abu Talib explained that the hospital performs 150 surgeries a day in various specialties during official working hours or during shifts.
In the interview, he revealed that a large number of consultants, specialists, doctors and technicians had left the hospital because of the war.
“One of the most important projects for the Hospital is the establishment of an oxygen plant,” he stated, noting that patients in the hospital consume at least 200 oxygen cylinders per day, estimated at 15 million a month, he said.
He continued: “By establishing this factory within the hospital, we have solved this problem. Now, we are expanding the kidney center. The expansion will increase by 40 beds, with the provision of all the supplies and dialysis devices, thus this will be the largest in the country accommodates 220 patients per day.
He confirmed that the health sector is facing many difficulties due to the blockade and aggression imposed by Saudi-led coalition.
Abu Talib noted that some of these difficulties are preventing the entry of medicines, medical devices, solutions and other medical supplies, as well as the spare parts sector of medical devices, as well as the time required to introduce these requirements of medicines and devices as a result of their detention.
“We must take responsibility because it is the only way that will lead to success,” he concluded.
(B H)
Film: The number of critically food insecure (IPC4+) people in #Yemen is forecast to rise 3.6 million to 5 million in the first half of 2021. What does this mean for families in Yemen? Listen to Safiah describe life for her family.
https://twitter.com/WFP_Canada/status/1335304181326860289
(* B H)
Film: Jemen, Mut & Menschlichkeit T Stöbe Freundeskreis Akademie Tutzing Teil I,II 11 2020
Über Tankred Stöbe ein paar Worte: Was zählt wirklich im Leben? Tankred Stöbe hat seine Antwort auf diese Frage gefunden. Seit Jahren ist er als Arzt in Krisengebieten in der ganzen Welt unterwegs. Ein heimlicher Grenzübertritt in einem Dschungel in Myanmar oder Tage und Nächte ohne Schlaf in einer Höhlen-Klinik in Syrien – seine Einsätze verlangen ihm alles ab. Dabei trifft er selbst in den ausweglosesten Situationen auf selbstlosen Mut und tiefberührende Menschlichkeit. Seine Erlebnisse geben ihm Hoffnung: »Wir verwehren uns vielen Erfahrungen aus einem Sicherheitsbedürfnis heraus. Aber es lohnt sich, die eigenen Grenzen auszuloten, egal in welchem Bereich. Jeder kann über sich hinauswachsen.«
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMcXpEjSOAs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I_5xcWA2BI
(B H)
35,960 pregnants, mothrs of children U5 received #Cash_Transfer in Mokha & Khadir districts #Taiz. #Cash_Transfer_Sensitive_in_Nutrition
@Cash4_Nutrition has scaled up to new districts after #IFPRI evidence on nutritinal improvement and deitry diversity (Photos)
https://twitter.com/SFDYemen/status/1334905177942462467
(A H)
Kuwait provides boats to fishermen in Taiz, Hodeidah
http://en.adenpress.news/news/30666
(B H)
NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND in SFD basic service response. Abdulah Bagomi, one of #persons_with_disabilities, #Maswar #Amran, was the most affected by lack of road, today he feels being the No.1 benefiting from the paved road leading to all public facilities
Our friend Abdulah Bagomi #Amran getting the most of the paved road. SFD response considers accessible and easy-to-use service for #persons_with_disabilities at the #Yemen communities. (films / photos)
https://twitter.com/SFDYemen/status/1334541263362609153
https://twitter.com/SFDYemen/status/1334569720461320199
https://twitter.com/SFDYemen/status/1334564203324125184
(B H)
Experts declare ‘famine like conditions’ for almost 17,000 people in Yemen, warns IRC
The International Rescue Committee is extremely concerned by the findings of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) that classified parts of Yemen as experiencing 'famine like conditions', with over 47,000 people projected to fall into this category in the next 6 months. Food insecurity and hunger had increased by 60% since April of this year, and in October of this year, child malnutrition was recorded as the highest it has ever been in some areas.
While food security for Yemenis declines, humanitarian access challenges increase.
Tamuna Sabadze, IRC Yemen Country Director said:
"The clock is ticking, every day more Yemenis are pushed into famine. This classification is reflective of what we have been seeing - millions of Yemenis have endured unimaginable suffering since the conflict started. With the humanitarian response severely underfunded, destruction of infrastructure and access constraints, all parties to the conflict must uphold international humanitarian law to ensure we can reach those most in need."
(B H)
News Alert: Hunger in Yemen predicted to surge to record levels
As we near the end of 2020, Yemen is on the brink of a catastrophic food security crisis and has returned to alarming levels of food insecurity.
Steve Claborne, Mercy Corps Country Director for Yemen explains:
“Nearly 13.5 million people in Yemen depend on food assistance for their survival. This is projected to increase by at least two million people early next year as families lose employment or purchasing power and have no way to put food on the table. With continuing conflict, rapidly increasing food prices, major declines in humanitarian funding and the threat of punishing new sanctions, the ability to provide any assistance to millions of people portents a catastrophe.” https://www.mercycorps.org/press-room/releases/hunger-in-Yemen-predicted-to-surge-to-record-levels
(* B H)
More than 2,000,000 children in Yemen facing hunger and starvation in 2021, warns Save the Children
Save the Children is alarmed and deeply concerned by the new UN report [1] on food insecurity in Yemen, revealing that 16.2 million people in the country are facing high levels of acute food shortages early next year. This includes 7.35 million children, with an estimated 21,338 children at risk of falling into famine.
Xavier Joubert, Save the Children’s country director in Yemen, said,
“These numbers leave no room for doubt that children are dying of hunger in Yemen and it will be even worse next year. More than two million children under five do not have enough food to eat, with over 2,200 on the brink of starving to death. This is a catastrophe that should set off alarm bells around the world. We cannot let an entire generation of children die because they don’t have enough food to eat.
For more than five years, children in Yemen have died because of conflict, disease and extreme hunger. Malnourished babies are getting the worst possible start to life, and fewer and fewer people are able to afford a basic meal."
(* B H)
War Pushes Yemeni Employees Into Poverty
Yemeni teacher Khaled Najeeb finds himself in the street with no income after the Saudi-Emirate coalition announced war on innocent Yemeni civilians.After a year and a half of the war, the Yemeni government decided to move the Yemeni Central Bank from Sana’a, which is controlled by the Houthi group, to Aden, the interim capital.
The salaries of about a million and a half public employees have been cut, who together support about five million people.Najeeb is one of those employees whose salary was cut and who was forced to search for another job to support his family of seven.
Najeeb said he searched for a long time for work to protect his family’s dignity after he lost his main income, saying that he couldn’t find any work except in a bakery. However, their living conditions have deteriorated amid the ongoing conflict. Poverty in Yemen jumped from 47 percent of the population living below the poverty line in 2014 to 75 percent by the end of 2019.
“If the fighting continues through 2022, Yemen will rank as the poorest country in the world, with 79 percent of the population living below the poverty line and 65 percent classified as extremely poor”, according to the report Assessing the Impact of War in Yemen on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
http://belqeesrights.org/2020/12/03/war-pushes-yemeni-employees-into-poverty/
(* B H)
Yemeni boy fights malnutrition as hunger stalks nation's children
Four months ago 10-year-old Hassan Merzam Muhammad was so severely malnourished he was unable to walk or react, carried limp into a Yemeni clinic by his father.
Then, his image in one of Reuters pictures of the year helped draw world attention to his country’s plight. Today, after treatment, he plays with a toy car, sits on a donkey and - mute since birth - uses hand signals and a smile to communicate.
But malnutrition hangs like a spectre over him and 2 million other Yemeni children as war, economic decline and COVID-19 push Yemen closer to what the United Nations warns could be the worst famine for decades.
“Hassan eats what we eat: rice, bread. We don’t have fat-rich foods nowadays, we cannot find meat for him,” his uncle Tayeb Muhammed said.
Hassan has lost some of the weight gained during treatment since returning to his family’s hut. Displaced five times by war, they now live in rural Hajjah, one of the poorest regions. His father has no work to provide for his seven children.
When Reuters first met Hassan in July he weighed just 9 kilos. A struggling local health clinic sent him to the capital Sanaa for treatment, paid for by a charity. He now weighs just over 13 kilos.
“His body is weak again,” his uncle told Reuters, and he needs more treatment.
Famine has never been officially declared in Yemen, where the more than five-year-old war has left 80% of the population reliant on aid in what the U.N. says is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
(* B H)
UN highlights humanitarian threat to Yemen, as US officials prepare to suspend aid
Trump administration expected to label Houthi rebels operating in Yemen as a terrorist organisation
The United Nations made an 11th-hour appeal to the Trump administration this week about the potential for humanitarian disaster in Yemen before an expected decision to name Houthi rebels there as a terrorist organisation and as US officials made preparations to potentially halt a $700 million (£522.3m) aid program for the country.
In a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday, David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Program, expressed his “grave concerns” about the potential impact of a decision to designate the Iranian-backed rebel group as a foreign terrorist organisation, which individuals familiar with the matter say Mr Pompeo could finalise as early as this week.
“I've got to have as much cover and flexibility as I can . . . in this complex working environment, where the Houthis control access to almost every single piece of territory,” Mr Beasley said in an interview.
In recent weeks, officials from the UN and aid groups have issued increasingly urgent warnings about the potential designation, saying it could worsen already-dire conditions in Yemen by reducing the amount of lifesaving aid and commercial imports moving into the country.
Aid workers say a terrorist designation for the Houthis could have a greater impact in disrupting aid and even commercial trade flows of food and medicine into Yemen because, unlike most other groups designated as terror organisations, the Houthis control an area that is home to 70 per cent of the population, including the capital and major sea- and airports.
Current and former officials have also warned that the move could have the unintended impact of deterring commercial shipping, insurance and trade companies from working in Yemen for fear of running afoul of US law. The waivers would not extend to non-US-funded aid work, leaving those groups in legal limbo.
Such designations have resulted in dramatic reductions to aid in the past, as occurred in Somalia with deadly effect more than a decade ago. Mr Beasley said the situation in Yemen was far more complex than in Somalia, because it is almost entirely dependent on food imports and because the Houthis control major infrastructure, a point he made to Mr Pompeo.
(B H)
Yemen: Health Cluster Achievements (October 2020)
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-health-cluster-achievements-october-2020
(* B H)
Yemen: NRC reaction to hunger statistics by the UN today
The latest shocking hunger figures from Yemen tell us in the starkest terms that without urgent action, 13.5 million Yemenis are currently at risk of starvation and close to 17,000 people are already living in famine conditions. These figures are expected to multiply in the next six months.
Six years of war have turned food into a weapon against the Yemeni people in the form of a crippling economic blockade, restrictions on imports, and relentless attacks on farms and fishermen. While the markets are full, food is out of reach for millions who can no longer afford it. All this is happening when aid funding has been dramatically slashed in Yemen and the economy is spiralling. At NRC we have had to halve our food aid to 360,000 people because of this. Adults tell us that they are skipping meals regularly so that their children do not go to bed hungry.
We still have time to reverse this course and prevent another historic famine. But we need to act immediately.
https://www.nrc.no/news/2020/december/yemen-nrc-reaction-to-hunger-statistics-by-the-un-today/
(B H)
Reaction: Latest data on hunger in Yemen
“It’s intolerable that millions of people in Yemen are one step away from famine and are struggling with catastrophic levels of hunger alongside conflict, COVID and cholera.
“And yet, donors have given barely half the money needed this year to provide the most vulnerable people with basic necessities like clean water, food and medicine.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/reaction-latest-data-hunger-yemen
(* B H)
Yemen: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Snapshot (October 2020 - June 2021)
From October to December 2020, 13.5 million people (45% of the analysed population) are facing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above), despite ongoing humanitarian food assistance (HFA). This includes 9.8 million people (33 percent) in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis), 3.6 million (12 percent) in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) and of greatest concern, approximately 16,500 people in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe).
Between January and June 2021, the number increases by nearly 3 million to 16.2 million people (54% of the total population analysed) likely to experience high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC phase 3 or above). Out of these, an estimated 11 million people will likely be in Crisis (IPC Phase 3), 5 million in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and the number of those in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5), will likely increase to 47,000.
Food insecurity is more severe in areas with active fighting or bordering areas with limited access, and is particularly affecting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and marginalized groups. The caseload in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) is mainly found in Al Jawf, Hajjah and Amran. In Al Jawf and Hajjah, conflict, displacement and limited humanitarian access are the main drivers.
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
(B H)
Seeing this child is heartbreaking, homeless, lives inside a tent. The unjust war has made the lives of millions of Yemenis very difficult, displacing nearly 4 million Yemenis from their homes.
https://twitter.com/ghalebalsudmy/status/1335712756096524290
(B H)
‘You have destroyed my house and at the same time you prevent me from looking for safety’
BETHANY RIELLY speaks to Saleh, a Yemeni asylum-seeker facing deportation on one of the Home Office’s notorious charter flights
DOZENS of asylum-seekers are set to be removed from Britain next week as the Home Office accelerates its brutal deportation drive ahead of Brexit.
Three charter flights to EU nations are scheduled to Germany, Belgium, France and Spain despite warnings that the Home Office’s rushed removal operations risk unlawfully deporting vulnerable people.
Among those facing imminent deportation is Saleh (not his real name), a Yemeni asylum-seeker.
Saleh has spent just four months in Britain. He arrived this summer, making the perilous Channel crossing like thousands of others in the hope of securing a safe future for him and his family.
“I had hope when I finally made it to Britain, and hoped for a better life, but what I face now is completely different,” he tells me over a call from Brook House detention centre.
“Now I feel like my life is going to end because I don’t know where I am going.”
The Yemeni national is booked on a charter flight to Belgium, where he spent four months sleeping on the streets earlier this year.
(B H)
IOM Yemen | Rapid Displacement Tracking (RDT) - Reporting Period: 29 Nov - 05 Dec 2020
From 01 January 2020 to 5 December 2020, IOM Yemen DTM estimates that 27,930 Households (167,580 Individuals) have experienced displacement at least once.
Since the beginning of 2020, DTM also identified other 1,319 previously displaced households who left the displaced location and moved to either their place of origin or some other displaced location.
Between 29 November 2020 and 05 December 2020, IOM Yemen DTM tracked 204 Households (1,224 individuals) displaced at least once. The highest number of displacements were seen in:
(* B H)
IOM Concerned about Impact of Yemen Famine Predictions on Displaced Persons, Migrants
New United Nations data showing record levels of acute food insecurity in Yemen raise major concerns over the impact of hunger on particularly vulnerable groups, especially internally displaced people and migrants. Millions of people are displaced across Yemen, with over 166,000 newly displaced this year alone, while at least 14,500 migrants are stranded in the country — both groups worryingly cite access to food as among their critical needs.
“The impact of the UN’s famine predictions will be disastrous, and even fatal, for internally displaced people and migrants, who are already greatly suffering as a result of limited access to food and humanitarian assistance,” said Christa Rottensteiner, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Chief of Mission in Yemen.
As a result of these complex factors, at least 27 per cent of those newly displaced across Yemen in 2020 cited food as a main need. The governorates where food is a priority for displaced people are Lahj (85%), Shabwah (67%), Al Dhale’e (59%) and Abyan (58%). In both Lahj and Shabwah governorates, which are still mostly in IPC 3 (Crisis), key informants reported to IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) that their food issues were due to the increased prices of essential commodities in local markets.
Nearly half of these displaced families in Lahj and nearly 90 per cent in Shabwah live with host families or relatives where they do not pay rent. That indicates that the host communities are experiencing dire economic conditions, limited resources and shortages in food supplies. This is having a knock-on effect on the displaced community.
In Shabwah governorate, food is the highest priority because many people displaced there work as civil servants and are facing reductions or pauses in government salaries. While in Al Dhale’e governorate, 73 per cent of the displaced were farmers who were forced to flee their land and are now unable to find work, leaving them unable to support their families. And despite over 40 per cent of the newly displaced in Al Dhale’e not having rent as a household expense, they still cannot afford food.
Food insecurity in the majority of districts in Marib governorate, where over 60 per cent of this year’s displacements have occurred, is already at emergency levels (IPC 4). This is extremely worrying given the large number of displaced people sheltering in the district and the limited humanitarian assistance available. There, the displacement crisis is further exacerbated by ongoing hostilities, which would lead to further disaster if they were to move closer to heavily populated areas.
In Marib, IOM partners with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to distribute emergency aid packages, including food rations, and cash assistance to those newly displaced in the governorate.
Like many displaced families, migrants are heavily reliant on aid and local charity for access to food.
(B H)
[Photos from a displaced family of Hodeidah needing help]
https://twitter.com/Ghadeer_tyrah/status/1334595517725208585
(* B H)
Yemen: UNHCR Operational Update, 3 December 2020
Countrywide, UNHCR continued cash distributions to over 72,000 internally displaced families and their host communities. Close to 14,700 refugees and asylum-seekers will also receive cash assistance in the south. The money will help them make rental payments, pay for food, clothes, medical assistance, prepare for winter, as well as cope with the extra hardship caused by COVID-19. According to IOM, over 27,716 families (166,296 individuals) have been displaced since the beginning of the year. Families on the move rely on humanitarian assistance to meet their most basic needs, including food, shelter, healthcare. UNHCR and partners provide them with lifesaving protection and assistance. Over the reporting period, UNHCR and partners assisted close to 2,000 families displaced by conflict with mattresses, blankets, and jerry cans to help them cook, sleep, wash and clean. UNHCR also assessed some 6,600 displaced families to identify their needs and priorities.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-unhcr-operational-update-3-december-2020
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
(A P)
Yemen lifts parliamentary immunity of 11 members indicted by criminal court
Yemen’s parliament has on Saturday lifted immunity of some members of the House of Representatives who are abroad.
The parliament said it had received a request from the Criminal Court to lift the immunity of 11 parliamentarians, in accordance with an indictment against them documented by evidence.
My comment: “abroad” certainly means they had defected to the Hadi government.
(A H P)
The Disabled Care and Rehabilitation Fund, in partnership with the National Federation of Yemeni Associations for People with Disabilities, organised an open day of entertainment for more than 1500 children with disabilities in the Assabean Park in #Sanaa.
The pictures tell a beautiful story. If only for a few hours.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/3604784769574527
(* B P)
Why Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement should be designated as a terrorist group
To understand how the Houthis operate, it is necessary to look at several key areas: the militia’s cartel structure, its anti-Semitic and sectarian ideology, its growing use of propaganda including in schools, and the powerful position held by their leader, Abdulmalik al-Houthi.
To govern the territory they control, the Houthis run a network parallel to the official state structure that encompasses all sectors of government. The system has many parallels with a gang cartel running a city.
At the top is the “kingpin” Abdulmalik Al-Houthi, surrounded by his trustees. Based on reports from his trustees, the kingpin sets the agenda on a day-to-day basis and is the ultimate authority.
Under this close circle are the general supervisors, who do not interact with the public and are usually anonymous. Like the “lieutenants” of a gang cartel, they often have aliases.
On the ground, a network of supervisors who interact with the public and control turf report to these general supervisors. Each supervisor has his own turf that he protects from others, and armed groups run by different supervisors might even clash with each other.
These supervisors are a collection of religious fanatics, former criminals, and pragmatists. In exchange for authority over their turf, the Houthi leadership expects them to fulfil three main tasks. First, to pass a percentage of any revenue collected up the chain. Second, to recruit for the organization. Third, to run an active indoctrination campaign.
On a daily basis, these Houthi supervisors harass women over their clothing, shut down restaurants and cafes that do not segregate between genders, and ban music in weddings and ceremonies – even universities are not allowed to have graduation parties.
They survive through extorting money out of stores and businesses and running oil black markets. Their money-making schemes have attracted criminals and pragmatists, who joined the group to profit from the system. People who do not adhere to their moral code can be arbitrarily detained, forcefully disappeared, tortured to death, without any interference from the judiciary.
Also on the ground is the Houthis’ network of “watchers” – informants who serve as the eyes and ears of the organization. These informants provide information to Houthi officials at various levels, including in some cases directly to al-Houthi’s inner circle.
They also play a censorship role, reporting on individuals and entities who criticize the organization or its leader, including posts on social media, articles and any kind of activity. As a result, journalists are imprisoned, newspapers confiscated, and TV stations closed. People living under the Houthis therefore live in an environment of fear.
The network is not accountable and extremely violent and oppressive.
The Houthis have not just established violent, cartel-like control over parts of Yemen, but have also promoted their sectarian and intolerant ideology.
Any individual who voices doubts or criticizes the system is quickly labelled a traitor, mercenary, or American or Israeli spy. This is in line with the Houthis’ ideology, which doesn’t see them as fighting a tribal war in Yemen but instead waging a struggle against the imperialist states of Israel and the US, with the Houthis’ domestic opponents portrayed as stooges. Likewise, they portray Saudi Arabia as an extension and agent of the US and Israel.
The Houthis have disseminated this ideology in the territory they run, including through schools, making significant changes to the education curriculum – by Baraa Shiban
Comment by Nadwa Dawsari: Whether we agree with Baraa on the issue of designating Houthis as FTO or not (most disagreement or not about whether Houthis r terrorists or not but about unintended consequences) , he is an expert on the rebel group & this piece sheds light on how Houthis operate
https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1335619730099625984
My comment: By a Yemeni anti-Houthi author / propagandist, pro-Saudi Al Arabiya happily accepted this article. But, as Nadwa dawsari comments: Even if the arricle does not show why the Houthis should be labeled as “terrorists”, it shows how Houthi rule works. This is a perfect example of “bad governance” and of a dictatorship but not of “terrorism” in the proper sense. The main goal of Houthi rule seems to be keeping Houthi rule going on. Might-be 5 years of war had pushed Houthis to develop in this direction – this off course could not be an excuse, but someway contribute to an explanation.
(A P)
The Houthi group resumes blocking Yemeni and Arab news websites on the internet./Almostakbal Online.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-43646
(* B P)
NGO reports 150 Houthi execution sentences against oppositionists
A Yemeni NGO reported 150 sentence executions Houthis have issued against oppositionists, including members of the Bahai faith, a minority.
In a new report, Sam Organization for Rights and Freedoms said the Sana'a-based theocratic militia "harnessed illegitimate courts to issue sentences to execute oppositionists and confiscate their properties.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-43644
(A P)
Yemeni army spokesman: Saudi forces are in their final stages of defeat
Yemeni army spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e, has on Saturday said that Saudi-led aggression forces and their mercenaries “are in their final stages”, after suffering successive defeats at the hands of the Yemeni army and Popular Committees on various frontlines.
The move came during his meeting with 300 military personnel who defected from the coalition and returned to the homeland.
The spokesman affirmed that the occupiers and agents, who shed blood of the Yemeni people, would be forced to leave by the national resistance rejecting oppression and subservience.
and also https://en.mehrnews.com/news/166795/Yemen-aggressors-taking-their-last-breaths
(A P)
Regierung der Nationalen Rettung im Jemen kündigt Generalamnestie an
Brigadegeneral Yahya Sari-a, Sprecher der jemenitischen Streitkräfte, sagte am Samstag (gestern), alle, die in den letzten Jahren in der saudisch-geführten Kriegskoalition gekämpft hätten, könnten auf Wunsch zu der jemenitischen Achse zurückkehren.
General Sari-a betonte, "Oberste Führer haben ein Amnestiedekret für diejenigen erlassen, die auf den richtigen Weg zurückkehren wollen, um die Tötung ihrer Landsleute zu beenden."
Der Sprecher der jemenitischen Streitkräfte sagte, die Besatzer und Söldner, egal wie sehr sie weiterhin Blut vergießen, hätten kein anderes Schicksal, als sich angesichts der Auswirkungen des Widerstands der Oppositionskräfte gegen Kapitulation und Demütigung zu ergeben.
(A P)
Army spokesman calls on misled troops to avail of amnesty
The Armed Forces spokesman on Saturday called on the individuals still deceived by the Saudi-led aggression coalition to return to the homeland party and benefit from the general amnesty.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3118844.htm
(A P)
We renew the demand for the release of Prof. Hameed Aqlan, President of the University of Science and Technology, who has been detained by the Houthi militia unjustly and aggressively for about a year without any charges mentioned against him.
https://twitter.com/mohammed500s/status/1334571955928838146
(* B P)
Films: Blowing up their opponents' homes is one of many atrocities committed by #Houthi militia against people in #Yemen.
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1334951472505761795
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1334933843846057985
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1334923190662012934
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1334887881882677249
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1334887881882677249
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1334885977823862796
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1334872581934096384
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1334842520694611970
Photos: https://twitter.com/Alsakaniali/status/1335046358923931649
(* B P)
Released journalists recount torture in Houthi prisons
The released journalists from Houthi militia's prisons Hisham Tarmoum, Hassan Annab, Isam Balghaith and Hisham al-Yousofi have revealed different types of torture they were subjected to in Houthi militia detentions.
They underwent psychological and physical torture since early hours of kidnapping them until their release, according to them.
In the hearing session organized by Yemeni Journalist Syndicate in cooperation with the National Organization for Yemeni Media men on Thursday here, the journalists talked about barbaric treatment by Houthi militia against prisoners.
Some of them sustain setbacks from time to time after being released over psychological and physical torture as were deprived from any form of healthcare.
The journalists reviewed types of torture they were subjected to in Houthi militia's detentions like terrifying, threatening of killing, putting them in weapon warehouses to be subjected to jets' bombardment, depriving them from sleeping, food and water, giving them wastes of food and dirty water and giving them unsuitable medicines to loose health.
The journalists also revealed other types of physical torture like hanging for long periods, hitting by sticks, kicking, punching and humiliation during interrogation sessions almost daily during the first year of detention.
According to the released journalists, they were kept in dark rooms for weeks and sometimes are imprisoned in basements were sanitation water leaks. The militia used to convey bad news on their fate in the prisons to their relatives and convey bad news on their relatives to them just for psychological torture
http://en.adenpress.news/news/30657
and also https://www.arabnews.com/node/1773531/middle-east
http://en.26sepnews.net/2020/12/04/released-journalists-recount-torture-in-houthi-prisons/
(A K P)
25 pro-government troops defect to Houthis, says report
The Houthi group on Thursday announced the defection of 25 pro-government soldiers from the Marran Command in Saada province, including three chiefs from the 3rd Oroubah Brigade stationed in the area of Al-Khoubah.
A reception for chief of staff of the Brigade Col. Abbas Al-Sad'e, his deputy Ammar Al-Harbi and deputy chief of the manpower of the brigade Maj. Mohfuz Al-Madyah was held in the capital Sanaa, the Houthi-run Saba news agency reported.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-21591.html
and by Saba: https://www.saba.ye/en/news3118648.htm
(A P)
Houthi government says visit of US envoy to Mahrah 'provocative'
The Houthi salvation government on Wednesday said the visit of the US ambassador Christopher Henzel to Yemen's Mahrah province has provoked every free and honest Yemeni especially as it came on the anniversary of the end of the British rule of the south.
Prime minister Abdulaziz bin Habtour said the visit exposed the real intentions of the Saudi presence in Mahrah which is paving the way for the American legions.
The Saudi presence in this province is an instrument to serve the US-Zionist interests in the region, he said in a statement carried by the Houthi-run Saba news agency.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-21567.html
and also https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20201203-yemens-houthi-govt-condemns-us-envoys-visit-to-mahra/
(A P)
France sells political positions in return for cash from gulf states, say Houthis
The Ansar Allah group, known as the Houthis, on Wednesday accused France of selling political positions in return for funds from rich GCC states.
The group's spokesperson and chief negotiator, Mohammed Abdulsalam, expressed their rejection to a French statement condemning a recent attack on the Saudi Aramco company.
"The French condemnation of the operation against Aramco is rejected. It was too late, perhaps because France was still getting the price," he wrote on Twitter.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-21568.html
and also https://hodhodyemennews.net/2020/12/03/head-yemeni-diplomat-condemns-french-hypocrisy/
(A P)
Houthi-controlled parliament attacks Arab parliament over taking side of coalition
Yemen's Houthi-controlled parliament on Wednesday said the Arab parliament is taking the side of member states of a Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting in the country following a statement by the latter condemning attacks on Saudi Arabia.
It is regrettable that the president of the Arab parliament is exploiting his post and duties to take the side of the Saudi-led coalition at a time when it is supposed to condemn war crimes committed against the Yemeni people, it said in a statement carried by the Houthi-run Saba news agency.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-21570.html
Fortsetzung / Sequel: cp6 – cp19
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-699b-yemen-war-mosaic-699b
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-698-yemen-war-mosaic-698
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-698 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-698:
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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