IT’S almost midnight and I’m sitting in the bathroom, the space furthest away from the window and arguably the safest part of my room.
The power cut out about an hour ago, so I’m writing this by the glow of my laptop screen. Outside, I can hear the repetitive clack-clack-clack of anti-aircraft fire and the low hum of fighter jets passing overhead. It’s another sleep-deprived night in Sana’a, Yemen’s beleaguered capital.
The perpetual state of fear here is nothing new. It has been going on since the conflict started more than five months ago between two factions claiming to constitute the Government. Terrified, confused, exhausted — that is the new normal. The despair deepens as each day passes. More ground fighting, more air strikes, more desperation, more need.
Today, more than 21 million people — including 10 million children — are in need of humanitarian assistance. That means Yemen currently hosts the greatest number of people in need in the world — almost equal to the entire population of Australia.
What a horrible record to hold.
I’ve met people whose stories will stay with me forever, including too many children who’ve witnessed horrors beyond comprehension. There was the family of 20 sharing a single room after their home was reduced to rubble; the mother who chose to sell her family’s only mattress so she could afford medicine for her sick three-year-old son; and the 10-year-old boy who is so distressed, he wakes screaming every night.
Everywhere I go, people talk about food, or rather the lack of it. The spectre of famine now stalks large swathes of the country. That is because Yemen is slowly being throttled by a de facto blockade that prevents enough food and vital medicines getting to the families who need them most.
Just last week, air strikes and other shelling took place in and around Hodeida Port, the lifeline of Yemen when it comes to importing goods, including food, medicines and fuel. This fighting, in particular, will have drastic consequences for hundreds of thousands of long-suffering children and families in the north and centre of the country.
Right across Yemen, civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals and health centres, markets, shops and schools, has been damaged or destroyed by air strikes and armed fighting on the ground, restricting access to food, essential services and the means to survive.
For too long, parties to this conflict have shown a shocking contempt for human life and it needs to end. If the international community does not act soon, thousands of children could die from hunger-related causes before the year is out.
At Save the Children, we are working around the clock to scale up our response, which includes mobilising 18 health teams that support 90 health facilities, distributing food and cash transfers to almost 150,000 people and educating hundreds of children on the risks of landmines.
But the challenge of getting lifesaving aid and supplies into the country is like nothing I’ve seen before — it is near impossible for a number of reasons, none more so than dire security.
We are short of all the basics here. Without fuel for our vehicles, the transportation of critical supplies and mobile health teams to affected areas will probably grind to halt. If something doesn’t change soon, children won’t just be dying from bombs and bullets.
Men, women and children have asked me why Yemen has seemingly been abandoned by much of the world. The truth is I, too, am pondering the same awful question. I don’t know what more to say to show Yemen is a nation in desperate need of help. It’s impossible to explain why the world has not taken proper notice of the impending doom unfolding on the southern Arabian Peninsula.
What I do know is that the senseless violence must stop, starting first with the protection of innocent civilians.
Save the Children is urging parties to the conflict to avoid aiming at vital infrastructure like roads, bridges and hospitals and keeping air and sea ports open.
We are also calling on the international community, including Australia, to use its diplomatic muscle with other influential countries to find a political and peaceful solution to the conflict, which ultimately will have the greatest humanitarian impact. Until then, the UN’s Yemen Appeal — only 18 per cent funded so far — needs bolstering.
While Australia has given more than $21 million to Yemen since 2009, it is yet to give anything to this humanitarian response and that must change. The US has already given more than $63 million and Japan more than $22 million. Even South Korea has contributed several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Unless we act soon, the lives of millions of innocent Yemenis will continue to be put at risk and then it won’t just be warring parties with blood on their hands.
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