Local Editor
Labour MP Keith Vaz wants to spend his last days in Yemen, he revealed to MPs as he begged for the UK to intervene in the country’s civil war.
MPs spoke of the “horror and heartbreak” of the conflict in a Commons debate, sparked by the death of at least 50 children after an airstrike on a school bus.
The images of the attack would live with him forever, said the MP for Leicester East, even amidst the “unconscionable death and destruction”.
“The haunting image of children, most under the age of 10, singing and clapping as they went to school,” he said.
“And then the agony of dozens of tiny, bloodied Unicef backpacks strewn in the aftermath of the destruction.”
Vaz appealed to Middle East Minister Alistair Burt to “please, please” announce a new round of peace talks, adding he hoped to return to the city of his birth, Aden, in southern Yemen.
He said: “I long to return to Aden, that beautiful city – I want to actually end my life there.
“I want my last days to be in the beautiful city of Aden, the city where I was born, because every time I think of this city it brings me to tears.”
Vaz said he was appalled at what Yemeni people had been through “and what we have failed to do” to end the conflict.
“Now we see a whole generation being wiped out and a whole generation who is going to hate those raining bombs down upon them,” he said.
“Britain’s task as a leader in world affairs is to convene these peace talks and I beg him to do so.”
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
