The World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis that No One Paid Attention
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Yemen’s civil war, famine, cholera and COVID-19 outbreak
The Houthis, (their territory is green on the map below) are supported by Iran and they started the Shi’a rebel movement in 2015 against the Republic of Yemen Government which is backed by Saudi Arabia. The Houthis attacked major northern cities when the government was weak and were able to take control of them. With fears of Iranian forces being near their borders, Saudi Arabia has been aimlessly bombing Houthis territory which have affected hospitals, markets and schools. In some select areas, 75% of the schools have been destroyed. The poorest region is trapped within an area that is constantly attacked with an estimated 100,000 dead.
Image taken from this website.
For the past four years, Yemen has been experiencing a famine due to Saudi Arabia's intervention in their state. Another factor that made the famine worse are the series of cyclones in 2018 located in the Arabian peninsula that exploded locust populations. Some of the largest locust swarms are able to eat the amount of food for 10 million people. By eating all the vegetation in farmland, they worsening the situation in food-scarce regions. Last year, it was stated that 70% of the population were food insecure and the number is just getting higher everyday. The UN states that every 10 minutes, a child dies in Yemen. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) set their goal to feed 12 million Yemeni every month in 2019.
Image taken from this website.
Starting in April 2017, Yemen has been experiencing the fastest and largest Cholera outbreak recorded by the World Health Organization. After a year from the initial outbreak, there have been 1.2 million recorded cases. With so many children experiencing malnutrition, they don't have much resistance to the disease. The aspect of water and hygiene limitation also plays a part in the spread.
Image taken from this website.
In a busy border crossing, healthcare workers are testing the people for COVID-19 but there is only one thermometer. To add to that, there are no extra batteries and the faulty equipment reads people’s temperature to be 70 degrees Fahrenheit. (Your temperature should be 98 degrees F or 37 degrees C) That same healthcare worker had his neighborhood bombed in April 2015. Twenty five of his neighbors died and he came out of it bloodily injured. From witnessing the horrible event and the "humanity of doctors", he decided that he wanted to be a part of the medical field, now being one year away from his degree. The World Health organization predicts that 55% of the Yemeni population could be affected by COVID-19 and 42,000 dying to it.
Image taken from this website.
This is one of the worst series of events to ever happen and has even been compared to the Holocaust in terms of predicted deaths. I could not believe I had not been aware of something so terrible that was happening in the world and I think other will feel the same way. This is a way for me to play my part in helping and doing what I can. The link down below is what introduced me to this topic and where I found a lot of the information for this website.
