Yemenis facing starvation as Saudi continues war

AS YEMENI children stare into the jaws of starvation, we cannot continue with business as usual.

The largest humanitarian disaster going unreported right now is the Saudi Arabian war on Yemen. For several years the kingdom has been launching attacks on the sovereign state, which has cost the lives of tens of thousands of people.

Millions of Yemenis are not only

poor but are also in despair and hungry for peace and food.

As more than 21 million people are in urgent need of assistance, this is a catastrophe more than anywhere else in the world, including Syria.

The severely starved young victims are now under threat from the worst recorded cholera outbreak in history. After two years of war,

the country has been destroyed by Saudi airstrikes. The nation is on the verge of a total collapse. Its currency, agriculture, infrastructure and health care have been destroyed by the war.

The US shares responsibility with the Saudi-led coalition for the Yemeni deaths from starvation that will result from the Saudi war strategy, because of the coalition’s dependence

on US logistical and political-diplomatic support. But the Pentagon and Central Command are already diverting attention from that shared guilt by focusing media attention on what they claim is a new threat from Iran. The result will be to compound the US guilt for mass starvation in Yemen.

This is nothing less than mass murder being perpetrated by Saudi

Arabia, which the US has been silent about. US foreign policy has been supportive of the conflict.

Not taking action to save Yemen before the famine rages is a choice the international community is making which, sadly, will be viewed as a disgrace to the international humanitarian system. ZAAKIR SAID

Westville