As families in Canada ready themselves to welcome the Spring, kids and families in Yemen continue to lose loved ones to the atrocities of the war on their countries. March 26, 2019, will mark four years since the start of the brutal bombing campaign and war on Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia and fully supported by the United States. The Saudi-led coalition started its war on Yemen under the guise of defending legitimacy and stability, and with the goal of reinstating to power the widely unpopular former president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, whose term had expired. He had resigned and flown to Saudi Arabia.
Today as we approach four years of war and bombing, there is no peace or stability in sight for the Yemeni people. Saudi and UAE fighter jets have indiscriminately bombed schools, homes, hospitals, universities, refugee camps, wedding halls, funerals, markets, cultural centres and countless other vital civilian targets. In addition to this inhuman bombing, the Saudi-led coalition has imposed on the Yemeni people an illegal land, air and sea blockade which severely hinders the country’s access to much needed humanitarian aid.
Yemen today is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project (ACLED), at least 60,223 people were killed in Yemen since January 2016. This drastic figure doesn’t account for the deaths caused by malnutrition and disease as a direct consequence of the war. According to the United Nations, 24 million people in Yemen urgently need humanitarian aid, over 80% of the population.
These grim numbers paint a horrific picture of the reality of life for the Yemeni people after four years of war and aggression on their country by the Saudi-led coalition. Since day one of the war, the U.S. government offered full political, logistical and military support to Saudi Arabia and UAE, and continues selling them weapons and bombs. Several EU countries such as France and Britain, and also Canada, are complicit in this horrific war as they have been making billions selling weapons to Saudi Arabia.
The war on Yemen was created and planned by the U.S. and its imperialist allies and implemented by their puppets in the region, Saudi Arabia, UAE and their coalition. They are responsible for the bloodshed and humanitarian crisis in the country. To hear them claim today that they care about the well-being of the Yemeni people and are genuinely seeking a ceasefire in the country is an insult against human intelligence. You don’t bring peace by continuously bombing an impoverished country for four years! Their war on Yemen is about expanding imperialist hegemony and control in the Middle East and shifting the balance of forces in Yemen in their interest.
Despite all criminal efforts by the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition and their imperialist allies such as France and Britain, they have failed in crushing the resistance of the dignified Yemeni people. In an article published by the magazine In These Times, Yemenis were asked to describe in one word or sentence their experience of the war. Alhassan Alhomani replied: “Yemen, despite the bombing, hunger, and death, will remain proud, refusing the humiliation and the breaking of this unjust world.”
As peace loving people and anti-war activists around the world, we must stand with Alhassan and the brave Yemeni people in their resistance against the Saudi-led war on their country. We need to organize to protest and hold our respective governments accountable for their support and participation in the atrocities committed in Yemen. We must continue to demand: that the Trudeau government cancels it's $15 billion arms deals with Saudi Arabia; the U.S., Canada, Saudi, France and Britain respect self-determination of Yemeni people; US/Saudi Arabia hands off Yemen. We must demand to stop the bombing and killing of children and innocent people in Yemen.
Follow Azza on Twitter: @Azza_R14
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