"There are shortages of food, cooking gas, fuel and drugs...The health system is collapsing. Patients with chronic diseases cannot get their drugs, bodies are on the streets, and the city is an open dump with trash covering the streets....It is extremely important to lift the blockade on food and medication and to set up unobstructed channels for air, sea and land access, to provide the population with what they need to survive." -Hassan Boucenine, Médecins Sans Frontières [MSF], head of mission in Yemen, June 11, 2015 statement [1]

Since March 25, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Arab countries have been launching air assaults against targets in Yemen. The stated purpose has been to restore to power the so-called legitimate Yemeni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. [2]

Over the course of the last two and a half months, the infrastructure has been dealt a serious blow. Electircal grids, water supplies, sewage, food shipments and medical supplies have been affected.

Already the poorest country in the region, Yemen is now quickly becoming a major humanitarian crisis. According to the UN, 20 million people, or 80% of the population of the country, are now in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. [3]

According to World Health Organization Statistics, 15 million Yemenis do not have access to basic health care with 53 health facilities closed. One million are now internally displaced. Approximately 2000 have died since the commencement of the bombing. Twelve million have become food insecure. This situation has become exacerbated by a Saudi enforced blockade which denies humanitarian aid to the suffering denizens of this besieged state. [4][5]

Now in the lead up to UN brokered peace negotiations in Geneva, thirteen international hunmanitarian organizations are calling for a permanent cease-fire, an end to the Saudi-led commercial blockade, an end to arms tranfers to those responsible for breaching international law, and an increase humanitarian and long term development funding. [6]

Despite the lives of millions being at risk, the Yemen tragedy has gotten shockingly little attention in the mainstream press compared to those generated from natural disasters the world has witnessed in recent years. [7]

This week’s Global Research News Hour investigates the humanitarian situation on the ground and probes some of the background to the conflict, and the geo-political and other factors leading to this carnage.

Source: globalresearch