YEMENI CHILDREN ARE STARVING TO DEATH

WHILE THE WORLD IS BUSY WITH  THE “HIGH POLICY” IN THE MIDDLE EAST

“You see the suffering of children all the time nowadays. Wars and famines are played out before us in our living rooms, and almost every week there are pictures of children who have been through unimaginable loss and horror. Mostly they look very calm. You see them looking into the camera, directly at the lens, and knowing what they have been through you expect to see terror or grief in their eyes, yet so often there’s no visible emotion at all. They look so blank it would be easy to imagine that they weren’t feeling much.
And though I do not for a moment equate what I went through with the suffering of those children, I do remember feeling as they look. I remember Matt talking to me— others as well, but mostly Matt— and I remember the enormous effort required even to hear what he said. I was so swamped by unmanageable emotions that I couldn’t feel a thing. It was like being at the bottom of the sea.”
― Mary Lawson, Crow Lake

How anyone could sleep peacefully knowing that there are some people who fight to survive and some children who die because they are not strong to endure?! I am not sure that we can ever come back to the point where we have lost our humanity. It is simply gone. We used to read news about men,women and children  being killed in the war zones without feeling anything but indifference or basic curiosity to follow the drama like happy house wives are following the soap operas every afternoon. The world nowadays is overwhelmed with tragedies so the bad things are turned into routine and people dont take personally other people suffering any more. The empathy and compassion is lost in the daily struggle to conclude what is important to be informed about and what is not at all. The human beings are now processors with possibility to start and stop emotions drivers as they want or as they need.

The wars and conflicts are not easy for anyone anywhere but they are the devastating centrifugal force for the youngest. The horror of the war is crawling into children’s souls like snake is sneaking into the shadow during the hot days. Once the demons of violence visit the humble temple of one child’s heart, not any angel of mercy will ever fix that heart or give the new one. The damage has already done. For all times.

Yemen’s silent pain is not described in media but horrible moments of human suffering in this country come to us reflected in thousands of heart-breaking photos of children who are wounded, sick or died from malnutrition. The last thing is one of the worst consequences of Yemeni’s war and it hits mostly very young children, who are dying before they have ever lived, in the area full of dust, blood and agony.

On 24 March, 2016, 5-month-old  Udai Faisal died in his mother’s arms, like one of many babies who were killed by malnutrition in Yemen. His last moments were captured  at Al-Sabeen Hospital in Sanaa, where his terrified and broken  mother  Intissar Hezzam tried to do all she has could to save the son. Unfortunately, the precious soul didnt make it and left beloved parents in deepest pain on the Earth. But, Udai Faisal became the symbol of Yemeni children who suffer from starving to death, without being helped by the rest of the human world.

The situation in Yemen is hard to be understood because there are lot of merged political interests and regional influences but what is the fact is the bad economical situation which was getting worse since the Saudi-led coalition planes were striking all over the land, trying to defeat the rebel but injuring the ordinary people and making  their life conditions being impossible. Many families lost their homes as well as they live on small amounts of money. One of those people is also Udai’s father,Faisal Ahmed, former soldier who gets pension in about  £140 and according to British media, he is sharing it with wife and nine children. Since the civil war has begun in Yemen, many people’s poverty line dropped down. The cut off electricity, bad sanitary shape, the lack of food and clean water as well as constant threat from being killed or injured is the circle of hell in Yemen. The main reason why about 1,300,000 of children are starving to death is  because their parents are not able to give them appropriate diet and to enable them healthy  development.The Faisal Family eats only once a day and it is for expected that mother is not capable to feed newborn baby when she is not eating well too. He was brought to the hospital very late when his whole body was weakened by  diarrhea and a chest infection. The malnutrition was the logical outcome of the failure of the clinic picture. The parents couldnt have afford the longer medical help and that is the another growing disaster in wounded Yemen. People do not have enough money to pay for medical solutions. Even if they do have money, they do not have infrastructural support to reach the hospitals. On the last stage, when they do reach hospitals and pay for a treatment, those hospitals are usually without the vital pharmacy and needs.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia supported by the US is trying to fight Houthi rebels and Islamists but instead of cleaning the country from ISIS virus, they are cleaning the country from innocent people and their children. The Yemeni people are paying the highest price of stubborn politics and ME security obstacles.According to UNICEF, the real ground image is colored with permanent bloodshed of civil:“The bombing campaign has taken an extraordinary toll on the civilian population in Yemen.Attacks on schools and hospitals and the denial of humanitarian assistance to children continue to occur. The UN verified 51 attacks on education facilities, including schools and personnel.Sixty-three health facilities were attacked and  basic services and infrastructure in Yemen are on the verge of total collapse.Children are not safe anywhere in Yemen. Even playing or sleeping has become dangerous.The violence has forced the majority of Yemenis into destitution. An estimated 21.2 million people — 82 per cent of the total population — need urgent humanitarian assistance. Almost half of those in need are children.”

As we can see, the severe  malnutrition is one of the most dangerous challenges which is Yemen facing up with. If we move the war feelings, the destiny of the thousands of the children under five is under consideration. They are dying every single day. Some of them are killed directly by Saudi counter terrorism mission, but many of them are dying in their parents hands because of lack of food or prescribed helpful pills.

The International Community doesnt do as much as it should because this war must be sent to history by the efforts of all regional and global political powers. Sadly, the terrorists and their supporters in Yemen  are hiding behind civilians and there are news that people are being killed by suicide attacks on daily level. The UN is trying to bring the representatives of Ansar Allah, the political arm of rebel Houthis to the table for negotiation with bold Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government. The city of Sanaa is under Ansar Allah control since 2014 whilst the southern city of Aden is always under bite of terror. In the last one about 10 Yemeni soldiers were massacred  after double car bomb attack. In the coastal city of Mukalla, soldiers are being killed regularly, mostly by suicide attacks, like it was one during the holy Muslim  month of Ramadan, when least 38 of them have been killed in the wave of suicide bombings, committed by DAESH supporters.

The final approach to the Yemen cataclysm must be one and united response by all of global players.  At the end of the day, the misfortune of innocent children is something we are all responsible for. Actively, choosing our governments and their military interventionism in the ME, and passively, not replacing our failed governments with those which will follow at least one principle, basic humanity.

http://support.unicef.org/campaign/crisis-yemen-donate-now-help-children

We betrayed Yemen, Yemeni people but above all, we betrayed Yemeni children who have wanted only to live and play.