UN Warns 10 Million More Yemenis Expected to Starve to Death by End of Year

Whitney Webb is a staff writer for MintPress News and a contributing to the Truth of Swank in the media. Her work has appeared in Global Research, Ron Paul Institute, 21st Century Wire, and others. She has also produced radio and television programs on RT and Sputnik. She currently lives with her family in southern Chile.
At a news conference last Friday, the United Nations warned that millions of Yemeni civilians expect to starve before the end of the year
As a result of the siege imposed on the country by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia. The failed attempt by the Saudis to crush the Huthi-led resistance against Western imperialism and Saudi Arabia in Yemen has claimed thousands of lives and turned the country into the worst humanitarian crisis in the world since the war began in 2015.
Mark Loewock, UN emergency relief coordinator, expressed concern about “the recent decline in commercial food imports through Red Sea ports” – adding that if conditions did not improve, the number of Yemenis on the verge of hunger would rise from the current figure of 8.4 million to 18.4 million by December. Given the presence of nearly 28 million people in Yemen, the continuation of the Saudi-led blockade will mean that nearly two thirds of the country’s entire population will soon face famine.
The United Nations’ warning comes from the increasing famine in Yemen during the holy month of Ramadan, where Muslims celebrate the first appearance of the Koran through fasting. Given the number of Yemenis facing starvation, many Yemenite Muslims will be without food for their mushrooms
While the coalition – composed of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, supported by other Gulf kingdoms and Western governments – publicly claimed to have lifted the blockade after international pressure, the Alliance’s “ship inspections” continue to prevent vital supplies such as food, fuel and medicine from Entering the most densely populated parts of the country, which are still under Houthi control
Lowcock said that “lifting” the blockade did not have much impact on the crisis, noting that imports “far below pre-blockade averages” and are not enough to prevent the mass starvation of Yemeni civilians. In addition, the embargo has prevented drugs from entering the country – allowing the worst cholera epidemic in recent history to destroy Yemen, although cholera can be easily treated with cheap drugs.
The United Nations’ bad warnings about the situation in Yemen, undoubtedly the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, comes as the Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States and the United Kingdom, is preparing to attack Yemen’s main port of Hodeidah. On Monday, a coalition spokesman announced that his forces were 20 kilometers from the Houthi-controlled port, which has always been a key goal of the alliance. The United Nations and other groups have long warned that any attack on Hodeidah would exacerbate the crisis and significantly increase the number of Yemenis facing starvation.
According to Reuters, tens of thousands of Yemenis have fled the coastal city in recent days, as fighting in the region intensified. It remains unclear exactly when coalition forces will try to take over the city and whether the operation has been approved by its Western backers, such as the United States, which continued to supply the Alliance with weapons and ammunition despite its well-documented tendency to target civilian infrastructure
Beyond the Siege: Targeting food production and launching a full-scale war

A man looking at cows killed by a Saudi air raid on a dairy farm in Bajil in the western province of Yemen on 2 January 2016. Abdul Jabbar Ziad | Reuters

While the crisis lies with the coalition’s blockade of food, fuel and medicine imports, the coalition has also targeted the country’s food production and distribution infrastructure. In the first year of the conflict, coalition forces bombed more than 350 farms, markets and other agricultural infrastructure, which had a serious impact, given that only 2.8 per cent of Yemen’s land was arable. Fishermen were also heavily targeted throughout the conflict, with more than 250 fishing boats damaged or destroyed, and 152 people were killed on coalition ships and helicopters until last December.
The Alliance’s food production infrastructure continues unabated. On Wednesday, coalition aircraft bombed a series of mango farms in the province of Hodeidah, killing at least six people and wounding three – all of whom were taking part in the harvest at the time, according to local reports
The fact that the coalition continues deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, especially its ability to produce food locally in the middle of the siege, indicates that the coalition deliberately targets Yemeni civilians in an attempt to win the upper hand against the Houthis.
In fact, despite being better equipped and enjoying the support of Western armies, the Saudi-led coalition has not been able to make significant progress against the Houthi militia. For example, recent military operations by al-Houthi and allied groups led to the control of Yemeni resistance groups on more than 100 miles of Saudi territory and the Saudi army successfully raiding equipment and ammunition.
Thus, the inability of the coalition to win militarily against the Houthis over the three years since the war began indicates that they deliberately target civilians to compensate them for the lack of military progress, and adopt the strategy of “all-out war” which is due to end in the genocide majority of the country’s population

The source for this article is MinPress