Yemen Can't Wait Webinar 4/21/2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGyjktSlTlY
National Coalition Demands End to Military Support of War on Yemen
https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2022-04/national-coalition-demands-end-military-support-war-yemen
When the Music Stops: Yemen, Art and War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O5OtjAyslc
This January, [Saudi] jets killed over 90 people in the bombing of a migrant detention centre. It was one of the worst atrocities of the entire Yemen war, which has been marked by countless war crimes and civilian massacres – like we are tragically now seeing in Ukraine.
Amnesty International says a missile fragment found in the detention centre wreckage showed the weapon responsible was made by Raytheon, a US company with factories in Britain. Their equipment has been repeatedly linked to atrocities in Yemen, including the bombing of a wedding.
https://every75seconds.org/?fbclid=IwAR3R0ESfswuCgYsmm0Kfb2mc47_WBqBfER4xwyq34nhyGJQJt7Yb3AMnZo4
From Friends Committee on National Legislation-
Saudi Arabia’s War and Blockade on Yemen
https://www.fcnl.org/issues/middle-east-iran/yemen
https://fcnl.quorum.us/campaign/37146/?utm_source=fcnlaction
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Gulf states, with the support of the United States, have been conducting a military campaign in Yemen aimed at ousting the Houthi faction.
Indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets, including hospitals, schools, and water treatment plants, as well as the blockading of Yemeni ports—committed largely with U.S. weapons and logistical support—have resulted in what the UN has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with millions of Yemenis pushed to the edge of famine.
The ongoing Saudi blockade and thousands of gruesome air strikes have left the country’s population vulnerable and its vital infrastructures in ruin. The independent Yemeni organization Mwatana for Human Rights reported that 35 coalition air raids on 32 health facilities occurred between 2015 and 2018. Despite Congress passing legislation to end U.S. military support and block arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United States continues to provide intelligence sharing and maintenance support for Saudi-led coalition warplanes and billions of dollars in weapons sales.
Congress must pass legislation to end military support and weapons sales, restore humanitarian aid funding, and promote robust diplomacy to bring the war to an end.
The situation in Yemen has grown increasingly dire with the spread of COVID-19. Yemen is one of the most vulnerable countries to the coronavirus, given that nearly 80 percent of Yemenis are considered immunosuppressed. Yemenis who do contract the virus have limited access to the country’s health care facilities, since 50 percent have been destroyed or shut down.
The situation has been compounded by a 50% cut in aid to most of the country by the World Food Program, the reduction or closing of three quarters of all major UN aid programs, and a rollback of World Health Organization programming. As Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, has previously said, “Yemen needs support now—literally, right now. There are shortages of absolutely everything that’s needed to treat the people who are likely to become ill.”
FCNL’s work in Yemen is far from over, and we continue to seek federal policies and practices that avoid violence and embrace peace. Congress must pass legislation to end military support and weapons sales, endorse diplomacy and restore humanitarian aid funding, and use robust diplomacy to pressure the Saudi-led coalition into bringing the war to an end.
Hassan El-Tayyab
https://www.fcnl.org/people/hassan-el-tayyab
The People of Yemen Suffer Atrocities, Too
By Kathy Kelly, World BEYOND War, March 21, 2022
The United Nations’ goal was to raise more than $4.2 billion for the people of war-torn Yemen by March 15. But when that deadline rolled around, just $1.3 billion had come in.
“I am deeply disappointed,” said Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “The people of Yemen need the same level of support and solidarity that we’ve seen for the people of Ukraine. The crisis in Europe will dramatically impact Yemenis’ access to food and fuel, making an already dire situation even worse.”
With Yemen importing more than 35% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine, disruption to wheat supplies will cause soaring increases in the price of food.
“Since the onset of the Ukraine conflict, we have seen the prices of food skyrocket by more than 150 percent,” said Basheer Al Selwi, a spokesperson for the International Commission of the Red Cross in Yemen. “Millions of Yemeni families don’t know how to get their next meal.”
The ghastly blockade and bombardment of Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is now entering its eighth year. The United Nations estimated last fall that the Yemen death toll would top 377,000 people by the end of 2021.
The United States continues to supply spare parts for Saudi/UAE coalition war planes, along with maintenance and a steady flow of armaments. Without this support, the Saudis couldn’t continue their murderous aerial attacks.
Yet tragically, instead of condemning atrocities committed by the Saudi/UAE invasion, bombing and blockade of Yemen, the United States is cozying up to the leaders of these countries. As sanctions against Russia disrupt global oil sales, the United States is entering talks to become increasingly reliant on Saudi and UAE oil production. And Saudi Arabia and the UAE don’t want to increase their oil production without a U.S. agreement to help them increase their attacks against Yemen.
Human rights groups have decried the Saudi/UAE-led coalition for bombing roadways, fisheries, sewage and sanitation facilities, weddings, funerals and even a children’s school bus. In a recent attack, the Saudis killed sixty African migrants held in a detention center in Saada.
The Saudi blockade of Yemen has choked off essential imports needed for daily life, forcing the Yemeni people to depend on relief groups for survival.
There is another way. U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Peter De Fazio of Oregon, both Democrats, are now seeking cosponsors for the Yemen War Powers Resolution. It demands that Congress cut military support for the Saudi/UAE-led coalition’s war against Yemen.
On March 12, Saudi Arabia executed 81 people, including seven Yemenis – two of them prisoners of war and five of them accused of criticizing the Saudi war against Yemen.
Just two days after the mass execution, the Gulf Corporation Council, including many of the coalition partners attacking Yemen, announced Saudi willingness to host peace talks in their own capital city of Riyadh, requiring Yemen’s Ansar Allah leaders (informally known as Houthis) to risk execution by Saudi Arabia in order to discuss the war.
The Saudis have long insisted on a deeply flawed U.N. resolution which calls on the Houthi fighters to disarm but never even mentions the U.S. backed Saudi/UAE coalition as being among the warring parties. The Houthis say they will come to the negotiating table but cannot rely on the Saudis as mediators. This seems reasonable, given Saudi Arabia’s vengeful treatment of Yemenis.
The people of the United States have the right to insist that U.S. foreign policy be predicated on respect for human rights, equitable sharing of resources and an earnest commitment to end all wars. We should urge Congress to use the leverage it has for preventing continued aerial bombardment of Yemen and sponsor Jayapal’s and De Fazio’s forthcoming resolution.
We can also summon the humility and courage to acknowledge U.S. attacks against Yemeni civilians, make reparations and repair the dreadful systems undergirding our unbridled militarism.
Kathy Kelly, a peace activist and author, co-coordinates the Ban Killer Drones campaign and is board president of World BEYOND War. A shortened version of this article produced for Progressive Perspectives, which is run by The Progressive magazine
National Day of Action to End US Support for the War in Yemen
Tuesday, March 1st - Friends Committee on National Legislation Milwaukee Advocacy Team meeting with WI Rep. Gwen Moore's Aide, Chris Goldsen.
From Friends Committee on National Legislation-
End US Complicity in Saudi Arabia’s War and Blockade on Yemen
- 14,630 children have died so far in 2022, according to the worst-case estimates. In 2022, worst-case estimates are that 400,000 Yemeni children may die — one every 75 seconds or more than 1,100 per day (World Food Program and United Nations
- Since the beginning of the Yemeni Civil War, at least 230,000 civilians have died — some 131,000 from indirect causes such as lack of food (UN), 85,000 children may have died between April 2015 and October 2018 (Save the Children)
- As the situation deteriorates, 16 million Yemenis are on the brink of starvation with 2.3 million children under 5 suffering acute malnutrition; a spike in food prices and a further collapse of Yemen's currency in summer 2021 is driving even more children to hunger (UN, World Food Program, and Save the Children)
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Yemen is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as the war there enters its eighth year.
The UN estimates the war had killed 377,000 people as of the end of 2021, both directly and indirectly through hunger and disease – 70 percent of those deaths are children.
The United States can stop this — by ending the Saudi blockade of Yemen!
Sponsored by End the Wars Coalition, Peace Action WI, Women’s Int’l League for Peace & Freedom-MKE, Friends Committee on National Legislation Milwaukee, Progressive Democrats of WI, Veterans for Peace Chapter 102, Milwaukee Public Enterprise Committee, United Nation Association of Milwaukee
(Al Jazeera)
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