Yemen

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Re: Yemen

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:06 am

Yemen: Dire Warnings of Famine Amid Saudi-Led Assault on Port City

Headline
Nov 07, 2018


In Yemen, troops with the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition are fighting pitched battles with Houthi rebels for control of the port city of Hodeidah. Residents say Saudi warplanes have dropped more than 100 bombs on civilian neighborhoods over the past few days. The fighting came as the head of the U.N.’s World Food Program said Yemen remains the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Herve Verhoosel: “We call that 'pre-famine' for the moment. The situation is clearly dramatic. You know that WFP is feeding between 6 and 8 million people every month. Six to 8 million people—the number is amazing. I mean, if that’s technically a famine today or not, that doesn’t change anything to the gravity of the situation. That is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. That is the worst food security crisis in the world. Some things must be done.”

The Trump administration continues to support the Saudi-led coalition with weapons sales, intelligence sharing and midair-refueling missions for Saudi coalition bombers.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/7/ ... _port_city
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Re: Yemen

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Nov 27, 2018 2:46 pm

US 'slams the brakes' on UN Yemen ceasefire resolution

Aid groups to US: Stop Yemen's suffering
Washington (CNN)The US has "slammed the brakes on" a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a limited ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid in Yemen over concerns about angering Saudi Arabia, two sources tell CNN.

One source familiar with the negotiations over the resolution tells CNN the US "has slammed the brakes on," saying that "we can't support a resolution at the moment."

The source also said the move is at odds with what US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has been signaling to her counterparts at the UN, since she was supportive of the planned resolution weeks ago.

The White House declined to comment, referring queries about the resolution to the US Mission to the United Nations. Officials there also refused to comment.

'Threw a fit'


The reason for the delay continues to be a White House worry about angering Saudi Arabia, which strongly opposes the resolution, multiple sources say. CNN reported earlier this month that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, "threw a fit" when presented with an early draft of the document, leading to a delay and further discussions among Western allies on the matter.

Sources say US concerns, which are shared by other nations -- including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, both of which support Saudi in the conflict -- hinge on the real possibility that if the Security Council resolution is voted through, Saudi Arabia or the Houthis, or both, won't show up for hoped-for talks that are expected to take place next month in Stockholm, Sweden.

This latest delay comes a week after President Donald Trump indicated that he will not take strong action against Saudi Arabia or the crown prince for the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will brief lawmakers about the Khashoggi killing on Wednesday.
The move to slow the resolution could increase tensions with lawmakers from both parties who have expressed deep reservations about US support for the kingdom's war in Yemen and would like to censure Saudi Arabia for what its officials admit was a premeditated murder.
And it will continue to fuel questions about Trump's unusual deference to the kingdom.

Houthis ready for Yemen ceasefire, leader says
Houthis ready for Yemen ceasefire, leader says 03:04
The draft resolution, crafted by the UK and obtained by CNN, is already seen by human rights groups as disappointingly watered-down: It calls for a ceasefire only in Hodeidah, the principal Red Sea port through which some 80% of humanitarian aid flows.

The resolution is not at all critical of Saudi Arabia, and in fact compliments Saudi action; it is critical only of the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran and have been fighting Saudi-led coalition forces while maintaining control of the capital, Sanaa.

Mattis said last Wednesday that peace talks would take place in Sweden, even as experts cautioned that there's no guarantee Saudi Arabia will take the steps needed for that to happen.
Although the resolution in its current form is far from harsh on the Saudis, sources with knowledge of the discussions tell CNN that Saudi Arabia views even calling for a ceasefire and urging more humanitarian aid as indirect criticism of the kingdom and its four-year-long intervention in Yemen.

'Hugely sensitive'


"The Saudis are hugely sensitive -- ultra, ultra sensitive -- to international perceptions," one source told CNN. "They hate criticism. And (the crown prince) brings a whole new level of paranoia about this."

The situation in Yemen is now viewed as the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet, with some 13 million Yemenis at risk of starving to death, according to the United Nations and human rights groups.

On Wednesday, five human rights groups had issued an unusually stark statement, saying the US will bear shared responsibility for what may be the largest famine in decades if it doesn't cease support for the Saudi-led coalition.
Save the Children said Wednesday that an estimated 85,000 children under the age of 5 may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war began.
But one source says that any language on human rights or accountability should not be expected in the UN resolution, as that would be "unwelcome to the coalition" fighting the Houthis.

The source told CNN that the crafters of the draft resolution know it is unbalanced in its criticism solely of the Houthis, but "we are faced with a very stubborn set of allies. When you see this resolution not being critical of Saudis, some of that is because if they feel the entire world is against them, they'll continue this war."

The conflict, which began in 2015 as a civil war after the ouster of a strongman leader, gathered force when Saudi Arabia and allies entered the battle to counter what they saw as Iranian influence. The Gulf coalition received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France, which have also been selling weapons to Saudi Arabia.

After nearly four years, the war has killed around 57,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a crisis mapping project.

CNN's Nicole Gaouette contributed to this report.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/politics ... index.html
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Re: Yemen

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Dec 31, 2018 5:03 pm

AP Investigation: Food aid stolen as Yemen starves


A worn-out list of registered names for aid by Relief International, part of the World Food Program, is posted in Aden, Yemen in this July 23, 2018 photo. The U.N.’s World Food Program has 5,000 distribution sites across the country targeting 10 millThe Associated Press
WATCH Senate votes to stop US support for Yemen war, condemns Saudi crown prince

Day after day Nabil al-Hakimi, a humanitarian official in Taiz, one of Yemen's largest cities, went to work feeling he had a "mountain" on his shoulders. Billions of dollars in food and other foreign aid was coming into his war-ravaged homeland, but millions of Yemenis were still living a step away from famine.

Reports of organizational disarray and out-and-out thievery streamed in to him this spring and summer from around Taiz — 5,000 sacks of rice doled out without record of where they'd gone . . . 705 food baskets looted from a welfare agency's warehouses . . . 110 sacks of grain pillaged from trucks trying to make their way through the craggy northern highlands overlooking the city.

Food donations, it was clear, were being snatched from the starving.

Documents reviewed by The Associated Press and interviews with al-Hakimi and other officials and aid workers show that thousands of families in Taiz are not getting international food aid intended for them — often because it has been seized by armed units that are allied with the Saudi-led, American-backed military coalition fighting in Yemen.

"The army that should protect the aid is looting the aid," al-Hakimi told the AP.

Across Yemen, factions and militias on all sides of the conflict have blocked food aid from going to groups suspected of disloyalty, diverted it to front-line combat units or sold it for profit on the black market, according to public records and confidential documents obtained by the AP and interviews with more than 70 aid workers, government officials and average citizens from six different provinces.

The problem of lost and stolen aid is common in Taiz and other areas controlled by Yemen's internationally recognized government, which is supported by the Saudi-led military coalition. It is even more widespread in territories controlled by the Houthi rebels, the struggling government's main enemy during the nearly four years of warfare that has spawned the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Some observers have attributed the near-famine conditions in much of the country to the coalition's blockade of ports that supply Houthi-controlled areas. AP's investigation found that large amounts of food are making it into the country, but once there, the food often isn't getting to people who need it most — raising questions about the ability of United Nations agencies and other big aid organizations to operate effectively in Yemen.

After the release of the AP's investigation on Monday, the United Nations' World Food Program for the first time directly accused the Houthi rebels of diverting aid. WFP director David Beasley said in a letter to the Houthis' leader that if the rebels did not investigate and put an end to theft, the organization would suspend some assistance, potentially effecting nearly 3 million people.

"These incidents of fraud amount to stealing food from the mouths of hungry Yemeni children," Beasley wrote.

The WFP said its own investigation had found "evidence of trucks illicitly removing food from designated food distribution centers" in Houthi-controlled areas as well as fraud by a local food aid distributor connected to the Houthis' Education Ministry. It said it learned many people in the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa, have not been getting food rations they're entitled to and that in other areas "hungry people have been denied full rations."

The World Food Program has 5,000 distribution sites across the country targeting 10 million people a month with food baskets but says it can monitor just 20 percent of the deliveries.

This year the U.N., the United States, Saudi Arabia and others have poured more than $4 billion in food, shelter, medical and other aid into Yemen. That figure has been growing and is expected to keep climbing in 2019.

Despite the surge in help, hunger — and, in some pockets of the country, famine-level starvation — have continued to grow.

An analysis this month by a coalition of global relief groups found that even with the food aid that is coming in, more than half of the population is not getting enough to eat — 15.9 million of Yemen's 29 million people. They include 10.8 million who are in an "emergency" phase of food insecurity, roughly 5 million who are in a deeper "crisis" phase and 63,500 who are facing "catastrophe," a synonym for famine.

Counting the number of people who have starved to death in Yemen is difficult, because of the challenges of getting into areas shaken by violence and because starving people often officially die from diseases that prey on their weakened conditions. The nonprofit group Save the Children estimates that 85,000 children under the age of 5 have died from starvation or disease since the start of the war.

In some parts of the country, fighting, roadblocks and bureaucratic obstacles have reduced the amount of aid getting in. In other areas, aid gets in but still doesn't get to the hungriest families.

In the northern province of Saada, a Houthi stronghold, international aid groups estimate that 445,000 people need food assistance. Some months the U.N. has sent enough food to feed twice that many people. Yet the latest figures from the U.N. and other relief organizations show that 65 percent of residents are facing severe food shortages, including at least 7,000 people who are in pockets of outright famine.

Three officials with the coalition-backed government told the AP that they would provide replies to questions about the theft of food aid, but then didn't provide answers.

Officials at the agency that oversees aid work in Houthi territory — the National Authority for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs — did not return repeated phone calls from the AP.

U.N. officials have generally been cautious in public statements about the Houthis, based in part on worries that the rebels might respond by blocking U.N. agencies from access to starving people. But in interviews with the AP, two top U.N. relief officials used strong language in reference to both the Houthis and their battlefield adversaries.

Geert Cappelaere, Middle East director for UNICEF, the U.N.'s emergency fund for children, said authorities on "all sides" of the conflict are impeding aid groups — and increasing the risk that the country will descend into widespread famine.

"This has nothing to do with nature," Cappelaere told the AP. "There is no drought here in Yemen. All of this is man-made. All of this has to do with poor political leadership which doesn't put the people's interest at the core of their actions."

David Beasley, executive director of the U.N.'s food program, said "certain elements of the Houthis" are denying the agency access to some parts of rebel territory — and appear to be diverting food aid.

"It's a disgrace, criminal, it's wrong, and it needs to end," Beasley said in an interview Sunday with the AP. "Innocent people are suffering."

The rebels and the coalition forces have begun peace talks in recent weeks, a process that has led to a reduction in fighting and eased the challenges of getting food aid into and out of Hodeida, the port city that is a gateway to the Houthi-controlled north. But even if donors are able to get more food in, the problem of what happens to food aid once it makes landfall remains.

———

'THE POOR GET NOTHING'

The war in Yemen began in March 2015 after Houthi rebels swept out of the mountains and occupied northern Yemen, forcing the government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile.

After the rebels began pushing farther south, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states formed a coalition to take on the Houthis, describing their involvement as an effort to stop Iran, which has ties to the Houthis, from gaining sway over Yemen.

The coalition launched a rolling campaign of airstrikes and imposed an air, land and sea embargo on the rebel-held north. The Houthis, in turn, have blocked a key access route to Taiz, making it difficult for aid groups to get food and other supplies into the city.

The Houthis, a Zaidi-Shiite religious movement turned rebel militia, control an expanse of northern and western Yemen that is home to more than 70 percent of the country's population. In these areas, officials and relief workers say, Houthi rebels have moved aggressively to control the flow of food aid, putting pressure on international relief workers with threats of arrest or exile and setting up checkpoints that demand payments of "customs taxes" as trucks carrying aid try to move across rebel territory.

"Since the Houthis came to power, looting has been on a large scale," said Abdullah al-Hamidi, who served as acting education minister in the Houthi-run government in the north before defecting to the coalition side earlier this year. "This is why the poor get nothing. What really arrives to people is very little."

Each month in Sanaa, he said, at least 15,000 food baskets that the education ministry was supposed to provide to hungry families were instead diverted to the black market or used to feed Houthi militiamen serving on the front lines.

Half of the food baskets that the U.N. food program provides to Houthi-controlled areas are stored and distributed by the ministry, which is chaired by the brother of the rebels' top leader.

Moain al-Nagri, a managing editor at the Houthi-controlled daily newspaper, al-Thawra, told the AP that the paper learned last week that hundreds of its staffers had been falsely listed for more than a year as receiving food baskets from the education ministry. It's not clear where those food baskets went, he said, but it's clear that few of his employees received them.

Three other people with knowledge of relief programs in Houthi territory confirmed that they had knowledge of food baskets being improperly diverted from the education ministry. The three individuals and many others interviewed for this story spoke on condition of anonymity, because of the risks that the rebels might block aid programs or deny visas.

A senior U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue, told the AP that enough aid is coming into the country to meet the demands of the hunger crisis, but much of it is stolen.

"If there is no corruption," he said, "there is no famine."

———

BLACK MARKETS

Throughout Yemen, food that is supposed to be given for free to starving families ends up for sale in markets.

The Houthis' ministry of industry has documented hundreds of sacks of World Food Program flour being sold commercially after being repackaged by merchants, according to Abdu Bishr, who previously served as head of the ministry. Bishr, now a member of rebel-controlled parliament, says both sides in the war are to blame for failing to prevent the diversion of food aid.

Video shot in 2017 and obtained by the AP shows busy markets in the cities of Taiz and Aden not bothering to repackage pilfered food aid — selling cooking oil and flour displaying the U.N. food program's WFP logo. AP journalists reporting in Yemen this spring and summer spotted other examples of food with the logos of the WFP and other global relief groups being sold in markets in both Houthi and coalition areas.

"We have found entire stores packed with U.N. aid," said Fadl Moqbl, head of an independent advocacy group, the Yemeni Association for Consumers' Protection.

Because the war has wrecked the country's economy, many Yemenis don't have jobs or enough money to buy food in stores. Al-Hakimi, who worked for much of this year as the executive manager of the coalition-backed government's local relief committee in Taiz, said Yemenis will need more than short-term handouts. They need help to rebuild the country's economy and create jobs that will allow families to buy their own food.

When officials in Taiz asked al-Hakimi to take over as the relief committee's manager, he hoped he could help turn around the hunger crisis that has been building in the city since the war began. He soon discovered the scale of challenges facing him.

Political power in Taiz is divided among militias that have been folded into Yemen's national armed forces but continue to compete with each other to maintain their grips on the sectors of the city they control.

"Here the only means to achieve anyone's goals is through weapons," he said. "Who gets on the beneficiaries' lists? Those who have weapons. The poor, the most miserable, and the weak can't get their names on the lists of beneficiaries, so the aid goes to the powerful."

———

LION'S SHARE

Coalition bombing campaigns and guerrilla fighting on the ground have demolished homes, factories, water works and power plants and killed more than 60,000 combatants and civilians. More than 3 million people have been displaced, increasing the demand for food and other help from outside the country.

In a 2017 survey funded by the European Union, two-thirds of displaced Yemenis who responded said they hadn't received any humanitarian aid, even though people forced from their homes are supposed to be key targets of U.N. relief efforts.

In displacement camps in the Houthi-controlled northern district of Aslam, barefoot children and mothers whose bodies have been reduced to skin and bone live in tents and huts made of sticks and sackcloth. The camps are not far from villages where the AP reported in September that families were trying to stave off famine by eating boiled tree leaves.

The U.N. and other global aid organizations estimate that 1.5 million Yemeni children are malnourished, including 400,000 to 500,000 who suffer life-threatening "severe acute malnutrition."

One-year-old Nasser Hafez, who lived with his family in a camp called al-Motayhara, died Dec.12 from malnutrition and other complications at a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders. He was in a coma for five days before his tiny body gave up.

His father and 16 members of his family have moved at least six times since the start of the war. Before, the father said, he had been a tailor, earning enough to feed his family meat, chicken and vegetables. He said he hasn't received a single food basket from the U.N.'s World Food Program.

"They register us every month, maybe up to five times, but we never get food," he said.

He said the family has gotten cash transfers every few months equal to $50 from the relief group Oxfam. It costs almost half that amount, he said, to buy 50 kilograms of World Food Program wheat from a market, which lasts his family only a week or two.

The Houthi rebels maintain tight control on how much food goes to which districts and who gets it. They manipulate the official lists of beneficiaries by giving preferential treatment to Houthi supporters and families of slain and wounded soldiers, according to relief workers and officials.

"Some areas in Yemen take the lion's share and other areas receive a trickle," said Bishr, the member of the Houthi-controlled parliament.

Five relief workers told the AP that they believe the U.N. and other international groups have been forced to sacrifice their independence in order to maintain access as they try to deliver aid to as many people as possible.

The Houthis "threaten decision-makers and international employees through permits and visa renewals," a senior aid official told the AP. "Those who don't comply will have their visas rejected."

He said that he discovered his employees were tipping off the Houthis about the contents of his conversations and emails. When he complained about the spying, he said, the rebels pulled his visa and forced him to leave the country.

Beasley, the top official at the U.N. food program, said he believes some of the rebels in key positions do care about the welfare of struggling families and have worked well with his agency, but there are others "who don't care about the people."

"Anytime you are in a war zone, it's a difficult situation and obviously when it comes to the United Nations we are neutral," he said. But when it comes to making sure that food aid gets to the people who need it, "we can't be neutral. We need to speak out in strongest voice, condemn it in every way."

———

STRUGGLE IN TAIZ

Even before al-Hakimi took over as manager of Taiz's relief committee, officials and activists complained about intrigues and outrages relating to donated food.

In September 2017, the relief committee sent a warning to the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, a charity run by the Saudi government and one of the key donors in Yemen. The letter said many of the 871,000 food baskets that the King Salman Center claims it has provided to Taiz and surrounding areas had been "lost and unaccounted for." It said local groups that were supposed distribute the food were refusing to answer questions from the committee, apparently because they wanted to make sure "the truth never comes out" about where the food goes.

In the spring of 2018, the government in Taiz turned to al-Hakimi, who holds a doctorate in strategic development planning and has years of experience in training aid workers. Three relief workers in Taiz told the AP that al-Hakimi is known for being a principled person who won't go along with corrupt deals.

He took the job after providing the committee a list of 14 conditions aimed at addressing the flaws in the aid distribution system, including a requirement that the committee approve and coordinate all aid deliveries in Taiz.

One problem al-Hakimi and other relief workers faced was the Houthis' partial blockade of the city. The Houthis — who had taken over Taiz in the spring of 2015 but were pushed out by coalition forces in late 2016 — still control a key highway leading into the city. This slows the transport of aid into the city and limits how much can get in.

Despite the challenges, he won some victories after he started his new job. In one instance, he reached out to a military commander and secured the return of 110 sacks of flour that had been snatched from trucks in the highlands north of the city.

But in most cases, once the aid was gone, it was gone for good.

In early June, al-Hakimi and a local official demanded, to no avail, that an army unit known as Brigade 17 return 705 food baskets that had been lifted from a warehouse — as well as the "personal weapon" of the guard who had been trying to protect the goods.

"I talked to everyone but there was no action," al-Hakimi said. "The commander acted as if he wasn't in charge."

Brig. Gen. Abdel-Rahman al-Shamsani, the commander of Brigade 17, denies that his unit took the food baskets. He told the AP that recipients who had grown tired of waiting had "raided" the warehouse and taken food that was intended for them anyway.

As problems piled up, al-Hakimi aimed a flurry of complaints at bureaucrats and military officers. In a letter to a top army commander and an internal security chief, he wrote: "This is about your negligence in failing to take the necessary measures to bring back looted World Food Program aid."

If they did not quickly arrest the culprits and bring back the stolen items within 24 hours, he said, he would hold them "fully responsible for depriving Taiz of aid" and for "any humanitarian disaster in Taiz" that followed.

There was no response, al-Hakimi said.

By September he'd had enough.

"It's very important to do this work — but also important to have the power and authority to do it," al-Hakimi told the AP.

He tried to resign, but a top city leader talked him out of it, promising that officials would address the problems.

Nothing changed, al-Hakimi said. So in October he quit for good.

Two months later, an analysis from the U.N. and its aid partners estimated that 57 percent of Taiz's residents face emergency- or crisis-level food insecurity. The group's year-end breakdown says as many as 10,500 people in and around Taiz are living and dying in areas overtaken by full-blown famine.

———

The AP's reporting on the war in Yemen is supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wi ... s-60086836
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Re: Yemen

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:24 am


In rebuke to President Trump, House approves measure to force U.S. withdrawal from Yemen

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/2854241002
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Re: Yemen

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:04 am

Yemen, an estimated 85,000 children have died of hunger since the Saudi Coalition bombings in 2015. 14 million Yemenis are on the brink of starvation. Yet, we hear nothing from the administration on Yemen.

aljazeera


Yemeni refugees choose baboon-infested tent city over Saudi camp

Scores of refugees have refused to be housed in Saudi-funded units over the kingdom's military campaign in Yemen.

2 Mar 2019
Markazi refugee camp, Djibouti - Khalid Muhammad and his young family were enjoying their first good night's sleep in days when a troop of baboons attacked their tent last August.

At first, they thought the loud grunts and barks would pass. But when the baboons broke through the thin plastic sheets that make up their home, they knew they had only seconds to escape.

As he grabbed his family and ran for cover, the pots and pans which still had leftovers from the previous night's dinner were flung into the air.

As the smell of food wafted through the tent, every trace of it from their kitchen was taken away by the invading animals.

"They took everything we had," Muhammad, a father of three, told Al Jazeera. "Bags of rice, flour, vegetables - everything was gone. It was supposed to last us until the end of the month."


Al Jazeera observed a troop of around 40 baboons waiting just metres away from the camp's main entrance [Faisal Edroos/Al Jazeera]
Around 190,000 Yemenis and foreign nationals like Muhammad have fled Yemen's war after Saudi Arabia entered the country's civil war in March 2015.

At least 37,000 Yemenis arrived in Djibouti, an impoverished country which sits just 100km west of Muhammad's hometown of Taiz.

According to the United Nations, some 2,200 Yemenis are currently registered at the Markazi refugee camp, but more than 10,000 have sought refuge elsewhere, either opening restaurants and cafes with friends and relatives in the capital city, Djibouti, or opting to return home.

"When I first arrived here, there was no fence around the camp, there were no toilets, there was nothing," Muhammad said.

"I asked the UNHCR for more protection, I said I'd help erect a bigger fence, I asked them for help, I even got a petition together. But until now there's been no response."


Khalid Muhammad hopes to gain asylum in Europe for the betterment of his wife and three children [Faisal Edroos/Al Jazeera]

Refugees refuse to be relocated

Markazi, a sprawling tent city in the heart of the Djiboutian desert, is filled with similar stories of trauma and despair.

While the camp's surroundings are made of stunning landscapes of sand and volcanic rock, the former French colony is poor and excruciatingly hot, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius in the summer.

According to the refugees and medical officials, the cries of hyenas and wolves echo late into the night, while snakes and scorpions are known to frequently attack the inhabitants.

On top of all that, there are the baboons.

Just metres away from the camp's main entrance, Al Jazeera observed a troop of around 40 baboons waiting in the sun-parched dirt for rubbish and waste to be thrown out.

When it isn't, they throng the camp.


Most of Markazi's residents have either moved on to the capital or returned home to war-ravaged Yemen [Faisal Edroos/Al Jazeera]
In November, more than three and a half years after it entered Yemen's war, Saudi Arabia inaugurated 300 shipping-container style housing units to accommodate some 1,200 refugees.

Built at a cost of $6.5m, each of the 300 air-conditioned units included a toilet, bedroom, living room and kitchen, along with cooking facilities.

While the development was welcomed by many, a sizeable number of Markazi's inhabitants refused to be relocated.

Several of them said the units were too small to hold their large families, while others said they couldn't stomach living in units donated by the kingdom while it continued its aerial bombardment of Yemen.

"While the majority of the refugees are living in prefabricated houses, there are around 10-15 percent of them who are still in the tents," said Vanessa Panaligan, the UN's media relations officer in Djibouti.

"They've either refused to move citing political reasons, or their families are too big to fit into the units."

Muhammad, who refused to relocate, said while the units "represented an improvement" in people's conditions, they were "not the solution to our underlying problem".

"There is no major difference between the units and the tents," he said. "In contrast, the tents are much better, especially in the summer. The units turn into an oven, they're incredibly hot."

"In the tents, the air is open, but in the units, you can't get any air, you can't breathe, or even feel the breeze," he said.


The UN has described conditions at the Markazi refugee camp as primitive [Faisal Edroos/Al Jazeera]
'Worst place for a child'

The aerial campaign in Yemen, now entering its fourth year, has devastated the country, with data collected by Al Jazeera and the Yemen Data Project revealing that weddings, funerals, schools and hospitals have frequently been targeted.

Under the leadership of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the alleged architect of the war, the alliance has also imposed a raft of punitive economic measures on Yemen, aimed at undercutting the Houthi rebels' grip on power, including a debilitating blockade on the port city of Hodeidah, a vital gateway for food, fuel, medicine and other goods into the country.

Hemmed in by the fighting, more than 18 million civilians are currently living under Houthi control, with the remaining 10 million forced to live in areas contested by armed groups, including al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), and fighters backed by the UAE.

The humanitarian situation has also taken a scarier turn, with at least 10 million Yemenis requiring immediate humanitarian assistance.

"Today, Yemen is the worst place on earth for a child," Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, told Al Jazeera earlier this week.

With a child dying every 10 minutes due to preventable diseases, Cappelaere urged the warring parties "to think of their own children when they sit at the negotiating table next time".

Sleeping on blankets donated by the UK and eating from tins marked 'USAID', Muhammad said his hopes had been dashed after fighting resurfaced following last year's Stockholm agreement.

"All the conferences, all the negotiations, they're useless, a waste of time and money," he said.

"We're all fed up. I just want to go to a third country, where I can get healthcare, a good education for my children, something which we can't get here."
Image
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/featu ... 03829.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Yemen

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:33 pm

Using the 2nd veto of his presidency, President trump rejects a bill passed by the US Congress that aimed to end America's support and involvement in the Yemen war that has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Yemen

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Sep 01, 2019 11:06 am

Saudi-coalition airstrike kills dozens in Yemen, Red Cross to investigate
Sudarsan RaghavanCAIRO —

People inspect the site of Saudi-led air strikes on a Houthi detention centre in Dhamar, Yemen Sept. 1, 2019. (Stringer/Reuters/)
September 1 at 7:49 AM
An airstrike on Sunday by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen killed dozens in a southwest province, said Yemeni rebel officials and aid workers. The Saudi military said they targeted a rebel arms depot, but rebels maintain the strike hit a prison.

In a statement carried on Saudi state television, the coalition said they had destroyed a warehouse that the rebels, known as the Houthis, used to housed drones and missiles. A Houthi spokesperson, speaking on the rebel’s Al Masirah TV channel, said at least 60 bodies were found in the rubble, and that the death toll could rise significantly.

The International Committee for the Red Cross on Sunday appeared to suggest that the facility that was hit was a detention center.

“We are taking these reports extremely seriously,” said Franz Rauchenstein, the head of delegation in Yemen for the group in a tweet. “I am on my way to Dahmar #Yemen to assess the situation. We have visited detainees in this location before, as we do in other places as part of our work.”

In a separate tweet, the ICRC said that it had dispatched a team carrying “urgent medical supplies that can treat up to 100 critically wounded persons.” It added that it would pick up 200 donated body bags along the way, “following airstrikes which are reported to have killed or wounded dozens of detainees.”

If true, the attack would be the latest by the Saud-led coalition to target civilians in Yemen. Such air assaults have in the past struck hospitals, health clinics, markets, even school buses. The coalition has said it has taken measures to prevent civilian casualties, but human rights groups and the United Nations say it continues to break international laws.

The coalition, made up Sunni Muslim countries, has been battling the Shiite Houthis since March 2015 in an effort to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government and prevent Iran from gaining influence through its alliance with the Houthis.

In recent months, the Houthis have shown greater military capabilities, targeting Saudi airports and oil fields with armed drones and missiles. The coalition has responded with airstrikes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/sa ... story.html


Yemen war: More than 100 dead in Saudi-led strike, says Red Cross
Red Crescent medics walk next to bags containing the bodies of victims of Saudi-led airstrikes on a Houthi detention centre in Dhamar, Yemen,Reuters
Red Crescent medics next to bags containing the bodies of victims the air strike
More than 100 people have died in Yemen after the Saudi-led coalition launched a series of air strikes on a detention centre, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The ICRC said that at least 40 survivors were being treated after the attack on Sunday in the city of Dhamar.

Local residents reported hearing six air strikes during the night.

The Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen's government, said its attack destroyed a drone and missile site.

The Iran-aligned Houthi rebel movement, which is fighting in opposition to the government and Saudi-led coalition, said the strikes had hit a facility it was using as a prison. The ICRC said it had visited detainees at the location before.

Franz Rauchenstein, the head of delegation for the ICRC in Yemen, said the organisation was collecting bodies from the site and described the chances of finding more survivors as "very low".

Yemen has been at war since 2015, when President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and his cabinet were forced to flee the capital Sanaa by the Houthis. Saudi Arabia backs President Hadi, and has led a coalition of regional countries in air strikes against the rebels.

The coalition launches air strikes almost every day, while the Houthis often fire missiles into Saudi Arabia.

The civil war has triggered the world's worst humanitarian disaster, with 80% of the population - more than 24 million people - requiring humanitarian assistance or protection, including 10 million who rely on food aid to survive.

More than 70,000 people are believed to have died since 2016 as a result of the conflict, according to UN estimates.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49544559
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Yemen

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:32 am

Why the press struggles to cover the war in Yemen
By Zainab Sultan, CJR
SEPTEMBER 2, 2019

Soldiers guard the site of a deadly attack inside the Sheikh Othman police station in Aden, Yemen, on August 1, 2019. AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty
IN THE WAKE OF 9/11, when the US invaded Afghanistan, journalists flew into the country with American troops and filed stories on America’s war against terrorism. Later, in 2003, the press helped convince the American public that the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that US intervention was necessary to liberate the Iraqi people. The subsequent internecine proxy conflict in Syria has been detailed in story after story.

But a fourth war, in Yemen, equal in destruction and in its potential for fallout that directly affects Americans, has been covered very differently. Amnesty International has described it as the “forgotten war.” Coverage of the conflict, which has raged for five years and has precipitated one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history, has been sporadic and simplistic.

ICYMI: The Kashmiri narrative

It is, admittedly, a complex story—one that requires a nuanced understanding of the cultures and the political currents of a whole region. Civil wars have plagued the nation for years. In 2011, when the Arab Spring shook the Arabian Peninsula and parts of North Africa, Yemenis protested for democracy. They toppled the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had ruled the country for 33 years. He was forced to hand over power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Under Hadi, who ran uncontested in 2012, reforms were slow and corruption and food insecurity continued. The Houthi rebels, a resistance movement that follows the Shia sect of Islam—the one most prevalent in Iran—wanted greater political representation. In 2014, they aligned with Saleh and took control of the capital city of Sanaa.

Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in early 2015. A fight for power between tribal and government factions within Yemen escalated in March of that year, when Saudi Arabia and other Arab states intervened with air strikes to fight the growing influence of Iran on the Houthis. According to international agencies, the number of dead—from air strikes and famine-like conditions in the country—could be as many as 80,000.

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Local journalists are routinely targeted with smear campaigns, run by both the Saudi coalition and the Houthis, on social media, says Radhya Almutawakel, a human rights advocate and the chairperson of Mwatana for Human Rights, a Yemeni human-rights group. “They try to spread the idea that we are spies of the US,” she says, “and isolate us from our community because they know that the worst thing that could happen to us is to be labeled biased.”

For Shuaib M. Almosawa, a freelance journalist based in Sanaa, maintaining a low profile has kept him safe and allowed him to preserve his credibility. In the past five years, he has refused several interviews and TV appearances. Almosawa mostly writes for Western media such as the Times, The Intercept, and Foreign Policy. “Most people in Yemen don’t read international papers or online news—so people don’t recognize me.”

But Almosawa credits his longevity as a reporter in part to the fact that he has avoided attacks by Houthis. “Mainly I tend to report on the coalition and the humanitarian crisis because of editors’ constant interest in the issue, and that keeps me out of trouble.”

Foreign reporters face other issues. When Iona Craig, an independent journalist, began covering the Yemen uprising in 2011, she recalls, access was a rare commodity. It remains unpredictable and arbitrary.

Foreign journalists remain caught between the Houthi-controlled north and the Saudi-coalition forces in the south and need to get permission from both parties if they want to enter the country. “It is effectively two countries as far as getting visas,” Craig says.

The first significant reporting on Yemen in the US press appeared in October 2016, when a bomb struck a funeral gathering in Sanaa and killed more than 100 people. The horror of the incident, and reports a few weeks later revealing that the bomb had been made in the US, meant that the story broke through.

Other coverage focused on the human impact of the war. The New York Times‘s story of an emaciated seven-year-old, Amal Hussain, sparked an outcry from all over the world. Craig points out that Amal’s photo and her death due to starvation symbolized Yemen’s suffering and received rare front-page coverage. The coalition also announced a loosening of restrictions to access in the summer of 2018.

But most journalists peg the recent spike in coverage of Yemen to the October 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The killing ignited a public debate and scrutiny of Saudi actions within the US. It also led, in the US Congress, to the passage of the War Powers Resolution Act, which called for an end to US military involvement in the Yemen war. (The measure was vetoed by President Trump in April.) “Khashoggi’s murder was repulsive and sickening,” Almosawa says. “They [Americans] couldn’t continue ignoring Saudi’s involvement in Yemen after this incident.”

Saudi Arabia desperately needed to change its image. It handed out Yemeni visas to journalists in Washington like “lollipops,” Craig says. According to Mohamad Bazzi, a professor of journalism at New York University, the Trump administration attracted far more scrutiny for its foreign policy than had President Obama—as reflected in the coverage of arms deals Trump was signing and the ways they came to bear on the conflict.

This July, PBS published a piece detailing $8 billion worth of arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The Intercept also published a detailed report on the widespread use of American weapons in Yemen, concluding that “Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are overwhelmingly dependent on Western-produced weapon systems to wage their devastating war in Yemen.”

Earlier this month, the UAE announced that it will be pulling some of its troops from Yemen, which experts say marks a growing rift between the Saudi and Emirati governments. A few weeks ago, clashes between Saudi forces and UAE-backed southern separatists began, killing at least 40 people and injuring more than 200.

For all the chaos in this years-long war, says Maggie Michael, an Associated Press reporter, Houthis still push stories to journalists about the humanitarian cost of the conflict. Saudi-coalition forces push information on child soldiers said to be used by the Houthis—and push back at allegations surrounding torture prisons.

Michael, who won a Pulitzer Prize this year for her coverage of the war, says that ultimately, the conflict reflects the essential dilemma faced by every journalist: “You are given different versions of the truth, and your job is to dig deep to reveal what it really is.”
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/yemen-war.php
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Yemen

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Oct 28, 2019 3:24 pm

Warren demands answers from US government after CNN's Yemen investigation
(CNN) — US Sen. Elizabeth Warren has written to US government agencies demanding answers after a CNN investigation revealed that American-made weapons in Yemen are being turned on the internationally recognized and US-backed government.

Last week, CNN revealed that military hardware supplied to US allies had been distributed in contravention of arms deals to militia groups, including separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates. The separatists are now using that hardware to fight the Saudi Arabia-supported forces of the internationally recognized government, who are also armed with US weapons.
"These unauthorized diversions of American military hardware to armed groups ... undermine US national security objectives in securing a political settlement to the conflict in Yemen, which has no military solution and remains one of the world's worst humanitarian crises," reads Warren's letter, which was sent Monday and is addressed to US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

This is the second time that Warren, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has written to the US agencies about arms transfers in Yemen following CNN reporting.

American weapons ended up in the wrong hands in Yemen. Now they're being turned on the US-backed government
In February, a CNN investigation revealed that Saudi Arabia and the UAE had transferred American-made weapons to al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other factions waging war in Yemen, in violation of their agreements with the United States.
The weapons also made their way into the hands of Iranian-backed rebels battling the coalition for control of the country, exposing some of America's sensitive military technology to Tehran and potentially endangering the lives of US troops in other conflict zones.
Responding to the latest evidence published by CNN last week, a UAE official said: "There were no instances when US-made equipment was used without direct UAE oversight. Except for four vehicles that were captured by the enemy." The Saudi government has not responded to CNN's requests for comment on this issue.

Warren sent the agencies detailed questions about the supervision of US-made weapons but received no reply other than a "brief acknowledgment from the State Department," according to her letter.

"The latest report underscores the need for concrete answers to my initial inquiry, highlights the importance of preventing unauthorized access, unauthorized transfers, or other violations of end-user agreements by foreign governments, and raises legitimate questions about whether it is in America's interest to continue selling arms and other military hardware to the Saudi and UAE governments," wrote Warren.

CNN has reached out to the State Department and Pentagon for comment on Warren's letter.

Pelosi: US arms sales, troop deployments to Saudi Arabia and UAE 'outrageous'
Following CNN's initial reporting in February, the Pentagon said it had launched its own investigation into the unauthorized transfer of US weapons in Yemen. In response to CNN's new findings, Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Carla Gleason said in September that the joint investigation by the State Department and Department of Defense remains "ongoing."

But more than half a year since the investigation was launched, the situation on the ground appears to have gotten worse.

Saudi Arabia has led a coalition, in close partnership with the UAE and including various militia groups, to fight the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015. But, in a clear break with its Saudi partners, the UAE said in July that it was reducing its forces in the country, and fighting escalated between separatists and government forces on the ground in August. The UAE has since thrown its support behind the separatist movement.

In recent months there have been multiple efforts by US lawmakers to force President Donald Trump to end US financial and military backing for the war in Yemen.

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, authored an amendment to the annual US defense spending bill, which is currently being debated in Washington, that would cut off support for the Saudi-led coalition until the Secretary of Defense can certify that both the Saudis and Emiratis have stopped transferring US weapons to third parties in Yemen.

In June 2019 the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) reported that the total number of reported fatalities in Yemen is more than 91,000 since 2015.

CNN's Mohamed Abo El Gheit, Florence Davey-Attlee, and Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/politics ... index.html



Draft Saudi-brokered deal aims to end south Yemen power struggle
Preliminary deal between Yemen government and southern separatists would bring separatists into a new cabinet.

18 hours ago
Vans drive past a billboard with posters of (L-R) Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and President of the United Arab Emirates Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, in Yemen's Aden [File: Fawaz Salman/Reuters]
Vans drive past a billboard with posters of (L-R) Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and President of the United Arab Emirates Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, in Yemen's Aden [File: Fawaz Salman/Reuters]
An initial agreement between Yemen's southern separatists and the internationally backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, designed to end a power struggle in the country's south, would see the separatists included in a new cabinet, according to a draft of the deal obtained by Al Jazeera.

The Saudi-brokered deal includes arrangements for a system of power that involves both Hadi's government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC), whose forces have been at loggerheads in Aden for months.

The draft agreement, expected to be announced in the coming days, followed weeks of negotiations hosted by Saudi Arabia.

Yemen's Information Minister Muammar Eryani said on Saturday that the agreement would be signed within two days.


معمر الإرياني

@ERYANIM
1.After initialing of Riyadh agreement, it will be officially signed within 2 days. it is expected to deal with this progress positively away from political rivalries as an important step to unite and direct all efforts in the battle of salvation from #Iran_backed_Houthis_militia

17
4:26 AM - Oct 26, 2019
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Formed in 2017 with backing from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the STC is a Yemeni group that joined the Saudi-led military alliance, which first intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to restore Hadi's government, shortly after it was removed from Sanaa by Houthi rebels.

In August, the UAE-backed separatist movement, which seeks self-rule in south Yemen, turned on Hadi's government as its forces seized their interim seat of Aden.

Riyadh has sought to refocus the coalition on fighting the Houthis on its border, who have repeatedly launched missiles and drone attacks on Saudi cities during the conflict.

The kingdom has in recent weeks increased its military presence in southern Yemen, bringing in additional troops, armoured vehicles, tanks and other military equipment.

It took control of Aden earlier this month after the UAE withdrew some of its forces from the city.

Key points both parties must adhere to upon signing the draft agreement:

Activation of the role of Yemeni state institutions in accordance with the political and economic arrangements set out in the agreement.

Restructuring of the country's military forces under the command of the ministry of defence in accordance with the military arrangements set out in the agreement.

Restructuring of the country's security forces under the leadership of the ministry of interior in accordance with the security arrangements set out in the agreement.

Upholding the Yemeni people's rights by rejecting and shedding regional and sectarian divisions among all segments of society.

Termination of the media war in all its forms between the two sides.

Uniting efforts under the leadership of the Saudi-led coalition to end the hostilities committed by the Houthis and confront al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS).

Forming a committee under the supervision of the coalition to follow up and implement the provisions of the agreement and its addendums.

Involving the STC in government negotiations over a final political solution to end the Houthi takeover.

Political and economic arrangements stipulated in the draft agreement:

The formation of a government comprising a maximum of 24 ministers, to be appointed by the president in consultation with the prime minister. Southerners are to be given 50 percent of ministerial roles within a period of 45 days from the signing of the agreement, provided they did not engage in any acts of killing or other hostilities during battles in Aden, Abin, and Shabwah.

Members of the government shall take their oath before the president the day after the cabinet is formed in Aden.

The president shall appoint a governor and a security director for Aden governorate within 15 days of the signing of the agreement.

The prime minister of the current government shall complete all the duties set out in the draft agreement within seven days of it being signed. He shall activate all state institutions in various liberated governorates and work to pay salaries and financial dues to employees of the military, security and civil sectors.

The president shall appoint governors and security directors in the rest of the southern governorates within 60 days of the agreement being signed.

State resources are to be managed to ensure that all state revenues - including oil, tax and customs revenues - are collected and deposited in the Central Bank of Aden.

Military arrangements included in the draft agreement:

All forces that have moved from their main positions and camps towards Aden, Abyan and Shabwa since August shall return to along with their weapons within 15 days of the agreement being signed.

During the same period (15 days), all medium and heavy weapons from all forces and camps in Aden will be transferred to camps designated and supervised by the coalition command.

The transitional council and government forces are to be united, merged with the ministry of defence under the direct supervision of the coalition, within 60 days of the agreement's enactment.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ ... 26978.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Posts: 32090
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