THE FORGOTTEN WAR
Biden's Empty Gesture: Houthis No Longer "Terrorists" but Yemen's Suffering
Only Grows
Human rights groups have warned that levels of famine in Yemen are now among
the highest recorded since 2015, suggesting that suffering in the country
has actually grown worse under the Biden administration.
by Ahmed Abdulkareem
April 09th, 2021
By Ahmed Abdulkareem
SAADA, YEMEN - In explaining a much-lauded move, President Joe Biden said
that the reason the United States was removing Yemen's Ansar Allah movement
from the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list was to avoid exacerbating the
humanitarian situation in the war-torn country and to allow much-needed aid
to reach local residents. Yet images of children with jutting ribs, swelling
bellies, and loose skin that have come to symbolize the war for the past six
years can still be found all over Yemen.
Four-year-old Gharam Sha'ib stands at a bed covered with blue sheets in
Hayden Rural Hospital in the northern Governorate of Saada. She is
bare-boned with haunting eyes wide open and the outlines of her ribs are
clearly visible through her skin. The malnourished girl arrived at the
hospital this week from the Al-Sumayk village in western Saada, an area far
removed from the waves of famine that have washed over Yemen in the past six
years.
Gharam's mother, who was hiding a tired face and emaciated body in a
voluminous black abaya robe and hijab, recounted her story to MintPress as
her arm was wrapping around her daughter`s stick-thin body: "There is not
enough food, no aid organization or person to help us. It was the 50,000 YR
($85 U.S.) fare we received that saved my child."
The farmer's wife struggles to feed her children amid the soaring prices of
food, fuel and medicine. She said that her life has turned to hell since the
beginning of the year. "I am now in my thirties. I have never faced
circumstances worse than now. What have we done to America and Saudi Arabia
to deserve this! I ask God not to forgive whoever caused this," she said,
crying.
Gharam was lucky, as she was discovered by a health worker and then
transported to the hospital at the administration's expense with assistance
from Doctors Without Borders. Salah Radwan, the director of the Health
Bureau in Haydan, told MintPress that because of the blockade malnutrition
is widespread in Saada. "There are hundreds of children in the district
suffering from severe malnutrition, but unable to arrive at the hospital
because of the high cost of transportation," he said.
Even worse under Biden
Symptoms of severe acute malnutrition - the most extreme and dangerous form
of under-nutrition - include jutting ribs and loose skin, with visible
wasting of body tissue. Swelling in the ankles, feet and belly, as blood
vessels leak fluid under the skin, are other symptoms. During the six years
of war, thousands of Yemeni children have borne these symptoms. But since
Biden promised to end the war on humanitarian grounds upon assuming power in
January, painful scenes of thousands of children with symptoms of acute
malnutrition have been recorded in new areas where no cases were previously
recorded, and at a higher rate than even during the era of former President
Donald Trump, according to Yemen's local health sources.
Yemen Famine Biden
Four-year-old Gharam Sha`ib is examined at Hayden Rural Hospital in Saada.
Ali Shurgbai | MintPress
The same source said, in a statement given to MintPress, that many districts
in Saada, Amran, Hajjah, Hodeida, Aden and Lahj provinces saw record jumps
in the number of malnourished children this year, with at least 100,000
cases of severe acute malnutrition in the first three months of the Biden
presidency alone. That number represents a massive increase from the same
period at the onset of the Trump presidency, when 5,000 cases were recorded.
This is likely because the blockade has continued unabated, according to
officials.
In fact, the average Yemenis daily caloric intake is only 800 calories. This
is insufficient even for small children, leading to a slew of disorders
related to malnutrition - scurvy, tuberculosis, dysentery, rickets,
marasmus, as well as wasting and stunting across Yemen. Official statistics
attribute nearly 70% of deaths in the country to starvation caused by the
blockade. Famine also opens a new window to Covid-19, which is inevitably
causing disproportionate suffering among those already weakened by
malnutrition and related diseases.
The Ministry of Health in Sana'a said in March that "more than 2.6 million
children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, and other
500,000 children are threatened by severe malnutrition due to the blockade."
The ministry confirmed that the Saudi blockade has caused an increase in the
death rate of children under five to 300 per day. While more than 8,000
women die from it annually, 1.8 million women suffer from malnutrition and
another million from complications from the effects of the blockade.
No relief from blockade's strangulation
In February, four United Nations agencies - including the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF (the United
Nations Children's Fund), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World
Health Organization (WHO) - said that nearly 2.3 million children under the
age of five in Yemen are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition in
2021. Of these, 400,000 are expected to suffer from cases so severe that
they could lead to death. The groups warned that these were among the
highest levels of severe acute malnutrition recorded in Yemen since the
escalation of conflict in 2015. "This is exactly what is going on thanks to
the blockade supported by the Biden administration," Dr. Ali Askar, the
manager of Haydan rural hospital said in frustration.
In March 2015 when the war began, Saudi Arabia, supported by the United
States, moved immediately to strangle the supply of raw materials and
foodstuffs into Yemen. Now, armed with a list of 100 banned items, Saudi
naval ships, supported by the U.S. Navy, are still patrolling the seas
around Yemen, intercepting and detaining thousands of merchant ships
carrying food, fuel, and fertilizer that are vital to agriculture, under the
guise of halting arms smuggling into the country. On occasion the ships are
released after months of detention, carrying damaged goods. The ongoing
naval blockade shows no signs of easing, despite recent talk of the U.S.
ending support for the war and with it the suffering of 30 million in the
war-torn country.
The restrictions imposed on Yemen are not just targeting the sea; the
country's airspace is dominated by the Saudi-led Coalition, which is
preventing thousands of sick Yemeni civilians from seeking urgent medical
treatment outside of the country. Thousands of wounded patients have died
prematurely because they were unable to travel abroad for treatment. Much of
Yemen's own medical equipment, including in major cities, is obsolete and
urgently needs to be replaced. Moreover, the almost total blockade of
commercial shipments of medicine through the airport, coupled with the
restrictions on imports through the Hodeidah seaport, has caused prices to
more than double, making essential medicines unaffordable for most of the
population.
So why the blockade?
On Wednesday, hundreds of trade union workers took the street in front of UN
headquarters to condemn the blockade, demanding that the United States and
its allies lift the blockade imposed on Sana'a International Airport and
allow ships carrying fuel to reach the country in accordance with
international law.
"I need to travel abroad for treatment of my children," Mutahir Ali Zamal, a
Yemeni father of four who participated in the protest said. His children all
suffer from xeroderma, a skin disease caused by a lack of proper hydration.
Dr. Abdullah Thawabeh, the general director of the Cancer Hospital in
Sana'a, said that the disease has led to skin cancer in the children due to
the presence of chemicals found in internationally prohibited munitions.
Yemen Children Biden
Mutahir Ali Zamal's sons suffer from xeroderma, a disease caused by a lack
of clean water and made worse by the war. Ahmed AbdulKareem | MintPress
Months ago, Saudi warplanes dropped a U.S.-made bomb near their home in
Kitaf, north of Saada, as the children were playing nearby. In the wake of
the airstrike, large brownish spots with darker speckles began to appear on
their faces, according to their father.
Dr. Thawabeh said the hospital can not deal with the case because it lacks
the necessary medicine and equipment due to the blockade, adding that the
children must be evacuated abroad immediately. "America said that it removed
Houthis from its terrorist list for us. If that was true, why were food,
fuel, and medicine not allowed to reach us?" he asked.
The CEO of Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC), Ammar Al-Adrai, told MintPress
that at least 10 oil tankers have been detained. The tankers, Al-Adrai says,
have been held despite being checked, cleared, and issued permits by both
the Saudi-led Coalition and the United Nations. He confirmed that the
vessels are loaded with oil derivatives needed to run generators at
hospitals, water pumping stations, and sewage plants.
