PRESS RELEASE
Saudi War of Genocide Dramatically Worsens Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen
Dec. 29, 2017 (EIRNS)—As the Saudi-imposed war on Yemen passes one thousand days in duration, the humanitarian situation there only seems to be getting worse. Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen issued a statement, yesterday, expressing deepening concern about civilian casualties resulting from the Saudi bombing campaign. "I remain deeply disturbed by mounting civilian casualties caused by escalated and indiscriminate attacks throughout Yemen," he said.
"Initial reports from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) indicate that on 26 December, airstrikes on a crowded popular market in Al Hayma sub-district in Attazziah district, Taizz Governorate resulted in at least 54 civilians killed, including eight children, and 32 others injured including six children."
He also cited a Dec. 26 airstrike that killed 14 members of a single family in Hodeidah governate.
"These incidents prove the complete disregard for human life that all parties, including the Saudi-led Coalition, continue to show in this absurd war that has only resulted in the destruction of the country and the incommensurate suffering of its people, who are being punished as part of a futile military campaign by both sides,"
he said.
Reuters reports that the civilian death toll over the past ten days, including the 68 cited by McGoldrick, is 109, with dozens more wounded. The same report also says that the UN has no updated estimate of the civilian death toll since August of 2016, when the number was put at 10,000.
But it doesn’t stop with the Saudi bombing campaign. In a country already racked by a war featuring indiscriminate bombing, widespread hunger and cholera, a new horror has arisen in Yemen: diphtheria. That dreaded disease is making a comeback in a country where it hadn’t been seen since 1992. And, as with the cholera epidemic, what’s left of the Yemen health care system is totally incapable of dealing with it. A Reuters report from Aden, which is under the control of the Saudi-backed puppet government, paints an absolutely horrifying picture of a situation that’s totally out of control in a hospital that’s already overwhelmed by the cholera epidemic and doesn’t have the resources to deal with this new outbreak, most of the victims of which are children under the age of 5. The pediatrician at the center of the story, in effect, is reduced to watching helplessly as these children, already suffering from malnutrition, die in front of her. The World Health Organization estimates there have been 380 diphtheria cases, so far, with 40 deaths.
