Yemen and 11,000 children killed or injured: NATO and Gulf powers
Sawako Utsumi and Sawako Uchida
Modern Tokyo Times
Monarchs in the Gulf region have enormous wealth linked to energy and modernization processes. Hence, the nations of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and other Gulf states are functioning modern states.
However, Yemen is blighted by a brutal war, where 11,000 children have been killed or maimed since 2015. This nation shares a border with Saudi Arabia and Oman. Yet, life is a million miles away for poorer Yemenis, who are caught up in the war and the many convulsions of this conflict.
Voice of America reports, “A UNICEF statement said the likely toll is far higher, with only U.N.-verified incidents included in the count that dates to when a Saudi-led coalition joined the conflict.”
The Saudi Arabia-led alliance first launched airstrikes against the Houthi insurgents in early 2015. This was in response to the Iran-backed insurgents taking control of the capital of Yemen (late 2014).
Last year, the Human Rights Council (HRC) condemned all parties to this conflict. The HRC said, “Examples include humanitarian restrictions and obstacles to access to food and healthcare; arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, gender-based violence, including sexual violence; torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; denial of fair trial rights; violations of fundamental freedoms; persecution and violations against journalists, human rights defenders, minorities, migrants and internally displaced persons; and violations of children’s rights.”
Lee Jay Walker says, “Since the conflict broke out, many rich pickings have been made by NATO powers that are heavily involved in supplying military arms. Indeed, for the UK, billions of pounds in military sales have been signed with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations. America, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have all made lucrative contracts with nations that are involved in the Yemen conflict. Therefore, NATO powers are responsible – along with Gulf powers and Iran – for the deaths of so many Yemenis who are caught up in a geopolitical, regional, and sectarian conflict that thrives on endless military sales.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2020) reports, “The war had already caused an estimated 233,000 deaths, including 131,000 from indirect causes such as lack of food, health services and infrastructure.”
In 2022, the death toll is much higher because the health convulsions are horrendous. Hence, thousands of children have perished from airstrikes, caught up in the fighting, cholera, malnutrition, and other terrible convulsions concerning war. Some estimates now put the number of deaths at approximately 400,000 people – this concerns the horrendous health convulsions from malnutrition to cholera – to lack of safe drinking water and drugs.
The Council of Foreign Relations reports, “After Saudi Arabia, the UAE has played the most significant military role in the coalition, contributing some ten thousand ground troops, mostly in Yemen’s south. However, the UAE removed most of them after entering into conflict with its coalition allies in 2019, when it backed the separatist Southern Transitional Government (STC), which captured Aden. That November, Hadi and the STC president signed the Riyadh Agreement, which affirms that the factions will share power equally in a postwar Yemeni government. The separatists reneged on the deal for several months in 2020, but eventually they joined a unity government with equal representation of northerners and southerners. Though the formation of a government signaled progress in bridging Yemen’s internal divisions, it did little to accelerate peace talks. In April 2022, Hadi ceded power to a governing council and fired a deputy scorned by the Houthis in hopes that the rebels would return to the negotiating table.”
Child soldiers are another grim reality in Yemen. The Associated Press reports, “U.N. experts said in a new report that nearly 2,000 children recruited by Yemen’s Houthi rebels died on the battlefield between January 2020 and May 2021, and the Iranian-backed rebels continue to hold camps and courses encouraging youngsters to fight.”
The presidency of Barack Obama spread death to Libya, Syria, Yemen, and other nations. Hence, the Yemen crisis enabled the Obama administration to make “a literal killing.”
Reuters reports, “U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has offered Saudi Arabia more than $115 billion in weapons, other military equipment and training, the most of any U.S. administration in the 71-year U.S.-Saudi alliance, a report seen by Reuters has found.”
Pity the vast numbers of children and adults in Yemen who have died concerning the meddling of outside nations. The sorrow of survivors is beyond understanding.
NATO and Gulf powers have turned a poor country into a nightmare – where death, poverty, and sorrow follow enormous military contracts.
America, the European Union, NATO, and the United Kingdom are quick to condemn China and the Russian Federation: but apt at remaining silent about their involvement in the deaths of millions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and other conflicts.
Japan naturally remains silent to the deeds of America, France, the United Kingdom, and other NATO powers.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/yemen-crisis
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