A PERFECT STORM OF SUFFERING
Charity peace plea after two years of hell
Families struggling to survive devastating airstrikes in Yemen are facing starvation, aid charities warned yesterday.
Oxfam said a “perfect storm of suffering” is engulfing the country as fighting cripples a key port, halting crucial shipments of food and fuel.
United Nations auditors revealed the number of merchant ships taking vital loads to the country, ravaged by a 20-month civil war, has fallen by half in just two months.
The dramatic reduction in shipping last month means fuel and food imports are a fraction of what the country needs to survive, prompting fears of widespread famine.
The collapse in imports yesterday prompted new cal ls for the UK Government to help broker peace.
Ministers have been accused of ignoring evidence that fighter planes and bombs sold to Saudi Arabia by Britain have been used against civilians.
Eight million people in the count ry are already suffering from malnutrition and more than 20million are short of food, amid cla ims that Saudi planes are deliberately targeting farms to starve rebel-held areas.
They have also blitzed docks at the major Red Sea port of Hodeida while imposing more red tape and bureaucracy to deter new shipments and delay the departure of ships already there.
The UN found only 81,496 tons of fuel reached Yemen in October compared with 456,803 tons in January. Experts believe the country needs 535,408 tons a month.
Aid charities fear grain importation companies are giving up on Yemen because of the logistical and financial difficulties.
Banking – along with other vital public services such as health care – has collapsed and import firms cannot reach their money. Meanwhile, some public sector workers have not been paid for months. Oxfam say the threat of widespread famine is real and imminent.
A spokesman said: “The difficulty in importing food and fuel to Yemen because of what has become an effective blockade can only make an already desperate situation worse.
“Yemen is a country where 90 per cent of food is imported. If the importation of grain and other basics is halted, the consequences could not be clearer or more worrying. The country is enduring a perfect storm of suffering.”
Around 10,000 people have already died in the conflict, including at least 4000 civilians. Three million more have fled their homes.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes but Oxfam believe the UK Government have a moral duty to help forge peace after selling arms to Saudi Arabia that were later used in alleged war crimes against civilians.
The spokesman added: “Ministers are in denial and disarray. We are sending aid to Yemen to ease the effect of the war but at the same time selling arms being used to wage that war.
“Britain should not be an arms broker in Yemen, we should be a peace broker.”
Ministers are being urged to help end the fighting between the Saudi-led coalition supporting ousted president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebels.
A leaked UN report said the targeting of civilians by the Saudis had been “widespread and systematic”.
In July, the Sunday Mail revealed fragments of so-called smart bombs dropped on civilians showed the laser- guidance systems had been made by US arms giants Raytheon’s plant in Fife and a sub-contractor in the Borders.
After our reports, Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, quizzed Prime Minister Theresa May, asking her if Scots-made bombs had killed civilians in Yemen.
He said: “If she doesn’t know the answer to that question, how can she possibly in good conscience continue selling them to Saudi Arabia?”
Anti-arms trade campaigners have won a judicial review – to be heard in February – aimed at stopping the British Government from sel l ing weapons to the Saudis.