Yemen: A crisis deserving attention

Don't forget Yemen: Rick Block talking at Maple Creek United Church

It is home to one of the greatest humanitarian crises in the world.
Yet Yemen doesn’t attract a lot of global attention, despite being torn apart by civil war since late 2014.
According to UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), the country has become a living hell for children since the conflict escalated in March 2015.
“Millions of parents don’t know if their children will survive from one day to the next,” says Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director.
More than 10,200 children have been killed or maimed, and thousands recruited into fighting. Schools and hospitals have been damaged and closed, and an estimated two million children internally displaced.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s dire hunger crisis teeters on the edge of catastrophe.
By March 2022, about 17.4 million people are in need of food assistance, with a growing portion of the population coping with emergency levels of hunger, say UNICEF.
Some 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, and nearly 8.5 million children lack access to safe water, sanitation, or hygiene.
Russell said UNICEF and its partners would continue to deliver for Yemen’s children, but were running out of funds.
The agency urgently needs about $240 million to support its humanitarian work over the next six months.
The plight of Yemen was mentioned by Rick Block, Saskatchewan regional representative of Canadian Foodgrains Bank, in his slideshow presentation at Maple Creek United Church on Thursday, March 24.
Yemen is one of the Arab world’s poorest countries. For seven years, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition backing the country’s official government has been fighting a rebel group called the Houthis, using mainly air strikes that have reportedly caused thousands of civilian deaths. The coalition has received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France. The Houthis have attacked targets in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with ballistic missiles and drones.

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