By Christian Bartlett
Imagine you are walking through your village, on the sides of the road are people doubled over, vomiting, and moaning. Off to the side in the local park, IV fluid bags hang from trees as their gaunt users lay under the branches. You step over rocks, no doubt launched from the crater that was the nearby shop. You finally make it to the well, despite the far off explosions, your heart rate is calm, you have done this before. As you raise the water in the buckets, you sneak a slip to your dry dusty lips. You feel relieved as it slides down your throat, knowing very well that within days you could be dead.
Many in Yemen are experiencing this situation right now. Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, has been in a civil war since 2014, when rebels began an occupation of the capital, Sana’a. The main cause of the civil war is from the failure of … fugitive Yemeni president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to successfully solve the country’s problems after succeeding the corrupt dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. … Hadi has suffered from separatist movements, terror organizations, and military officers still loyal to former President Saleh, as well as economic instability.
This war has done more than just cause sheer destruction for several years; it has seen a collapse of many government and private services which serve the people. Half of the countries health facilities are out of service and those that are still functioning are severely overburdened and undersupplied. Not only that, but the two year conflict has become an incubator for a deadly disease known as cholera. Practically nonexistent in most countries due to modern sewage and medical infrastructure, the disease can kill in a matter of hours from severe diarrhea and dehydration. The outbreak in Yemen is the largest and fastest spreading in modern history. The spread being spurred on by terrible sewage infrastructure (their farm fields are being irrigated by broken sewers) and wells being contaminated by weeks of uncollected garbage. There have been over 2000 deaths since April 27, 2017, with more than 5,000 contracting the disease every day and almost 1 million people already have it. The disease outbreak is bad enough; millions of Yemenis are also starving, with children looking like skeletal dolls. It is clear that something needs to be done to help the people of Yemen.
Even though this is a civil war, it is not without outside influences. There is a Saudi-led coalition supporting Hadi’s fight, and that coalition is also heavily supported by western powers such as The United Kingdom and America. There has been strong criticism of America, domestically and internationally, in regards to its involvement in this conflict. In a resounding vote in the U.S House of Representatives, they passed a bipartisan resolution stating that the U.S. involvement in supporting Saudi Arabia in their fight against Yemeni rebels is not authorized under any congressional legislation. It is a key moment, since it shows that Congress has acknowledged U.S. involvement, although the intent on getting involved in the region was to help combat terrorism. It is clear that the U.S. is giving logistical support to the Saudis, which is helping them attack the Houthi revolutionaries … , who are not radical terrorists.
There are many pieces to this Yemen conflict; however, we cannot allow these injustices against the Yemeni people to continue. Millions are sick, starving, and dying and very little is being done internationally to aid the conflict. Countries around the world are limited in what they can do to aid these situations but sadly it is not getting the media attention it deserves. For anybody who is able to help, donations can be made to the Red Cross or UNICEF that directly support the victims in Yemen. Issues are often politicized and debated but we forget about the most vulnerable who are impacted. A small donation can make a tremendous impact for the life of somebody in Yemen. It may not change the outcome of the conflict but a small donation can change the life of a person in Yemen.
Editor’s note: The following column was written by Christian Bartlett as a class assignment about a current world topic in 9th grade social studies class at W.C. Henderson High School. Bartlett’s essay was voted on by the class to submit for publication.
Source: Daily Local, Edited by Website Team
