Yemen: How one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters could get even worse

Published

4 weeks ago

April 9, 2024

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The grinding misery in Yemen just got worse. Yet while their own suffering goes on in virtual silence, they still protest in towns across Yemen in their hundreds of thousands about the Israeli bombing in Gaza.

Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, has found itself thrust into the centre of the war on Gaza. As if that wasn’t unlikely enough, the Houthi militants who control the bulk of the Yemeni population through a combination of force, fear and extensive outside help from Iran, are now being viewed by many as heroes.

The Houthi actions in wreaking havoc on global shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, has seen them surge in popularity at home and gain unexpected influence and cachet abroad.

So, when I interviewed one of the group’s inner circle, the cousin of the Houthi leader, Mohammed al-Houthi, in Yemen this week, he was all smiles.

“The whole world is with the Houthis,” he told me from his base in the capital, Sanaa. “They see we are the only ones taking on Israel and defending our brothers and sisters in Palestine.”

Certainly, the Houthi attacks on shipping routes off the coast of Yemen have massively refocussed a lot of the political and worldwide business attention – and right now, it is the heavily-armed, Iranian-backed militants who appear to have the upper-hand.

The UN envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg has already warned the situation could propel Yemen back into a fresh cycle of war.

He told the UN Security Council last month (15 March): “What happens regionally impacts Yemen and what happens in Yemen can impact the region.”

And the global attention the Houthis attacks have garnered appears to have galvanised the militants even more – whilst the international community seems powerless to halt them.

American and British military attacks on Houthi bases in the north have failed to stop the militants’ assault on shipping. The longer this continues, the more challenging the talks on a lasting peace in the country become, with Mr Grundberg pointing out to the UN: “With more interests at play, the parties to the conflict in Yemen are more likely to shift calculations and alter their negotiation agendas.”

And the Houthi leaders appear all too aware of this with Mohammed al-Houthi telling Sky News: “It’s not the same Yemen as in 2015. We have the weapons and the capability and we have the targets and we have the capacity,” he said in reference apparently to the funds and ammunition they have built up with Iranian help.

He went onto vow to continue the assaults on shipping: “We also have our own surprises if they don’t stop the blockage against Gaza and also the genocide against Gaza.”

The strategically important Yemen has been split by a civil war which began nearly 10 years ago. Houthi militants backed by Iran, seized control of the north of the country as well as the capital in 2015. But the south and Aden are run by an internationally recognised authority which has the support of a Saudi-led coalition which includes America, Britain and the UAE.

The country is a patchwork of armed checkpoints run by the opposing factions as well as other competing fighting groups – all making travel and trade, dangerous and highly challenging. The country and its citizens have suffered massively from this protracted war with both sides accused of extensive human rights abuses and war crimes.

But a year ago, there appeared to be a breakthrough with Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two rival regional powers, agreeing to work towards a lasting peace deal. That was until 7 October – the Hamas attack inside Israel and the Israeli bombardment of Gaza ever since.

Most Yemenis are already predisposed to supporting the rights of the Palestinians but this has reached new levels in the face of the Israeli military operation inside Gaza, now in its sixth month.

The repeated missile and drone attacks by the Houthis militants since November have forced international cargo ships to be re-routed. The longer, more costly journey avoiding the Red Sea and going around the Cape of Good Hope has sent the price of goods up everywhere. The outcome is the poorest countries with the poorest populations have been most severely impacted. And that includes Yemen.

We were at a bread distribution site in Aden, set up by the British charity, Action for Humanity, and saw the lines of hungry children and families queuing up for the free food.

For many, an already challenging situation has just got more so, according to the charity’s Dr Shameela Islam-Zulfiqar.

“Even more people are food insecure, even more are water insecure,” she told us. “And it’s going to take more than INGOs (charities) to plug the gaps of what’s happening here.”

A ramshackle shanty town has grown up over the past few years next door to the distribution point. It’s a hotchpotch of timber, corrugated sheets, discarded fabric and torn tents hammered together to make shelters for hundreds of people displaced by old and new instability.

One of the inhabitants tells us: “The people are all suffering. They live from day to day…some begging, selling scrap or borrowing money…but it’s very difficult.”

At the Al-Sadaqah hospital in Aden, the doctors despair over the mounting numbers of starving children being brought in. Dr Mohammed Rajeh shows us into the malnutrition ward where he says he’s just admitted three more babies overnight. “We are seeing a rise in the number of those babies needing help,” he says. The problem of hunger seems to be getting worse.

Several wards we go into have sick and malnourished young ones. But one ward stands out to us. Side by side in adjacent hospital beds, there are two tiny babies, struggling to stay in this world and tended to by nursing staff who’re not at all confident they will succeed.

The babies are both painfully thin with ribs protruding; extended, bloated stomachs and crinkled extra folds of skin hanging off tiny, stick-like limbs. Both are wasting away from lack of food. Their mothers cant feed them themselves because they are hungry and malnourished themselves.

Their fathers can’t earn enough to feed the families’ adults nor the families’ children. The fight to save the babies is the toughest job Dr Rajeh has right now. “Day to day, we are seeing an increase in patients with diarrhoea and malnutrition,” he says. “And with infections and diarrhoea, we fear for them. We could lose them at any moment.”

Yemen is enduring a near economic collapse. The teetering health system is under enormous strain with more than half the country without access to clean water and now facing a fresh outbreak of cholera.

Emergency isolation tents have been set up in the grounds of Al-Sadaqah hospital to cope with the influx of cholera patients and the extra numbers expected.

“We’re seeing sick people coming from all over Yemen,” Dr Saleh Dobahi told us. He’s especially worried because that suggests to him that there are several sources of the disease around the country. “It’s caused by poor water, poverty, sewage affecting food. People are poor in Yemen,” he added. “And this cholera seems to be a stronger, different strain too. It is very worrying.”

The civil war has taken a terrible toll on Yemen, turning the country into one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. But the additional strain caused by the regional impact of the Gaza war could be devastating.

“We have a divided country first, and we have all these problems, like inflation,” Dr Dobahi says. “We have war… and now we have another external war…so war not just in Yemen only but outside Yemen too.

“All this has an effect on our lives and at the same time, our health…the health of the population.”

Alex Crawford reports from Yemen with cameraman Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham, and Yemen producer Ahmed Baider

World

Health warning issued as heatwave grips South and Southeast Asia

Published

35 mins ago

May 4, 2024

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Health warning issued as heatwave grips South and Southeast Asia

Countries in South and Southeast Asia have been coping with a weeks-long heatwave which has seen record temperatures sweep parts of the region.

Pupils in the Philippines, India and Bangladesh have been told to stay at home and learn remotely due to a severe health risk.

Schools in Cambodia have also cut back on their hours.

Cambodia faces its hottest temperature in 170 years, according to meteorologists – as high as 43C (109F).

Bangkok in Thailand has reached 40C (104 F), but the heat index is said to have topped 50 C (122 F) due to the heat being trapped among the mass of buildings.

The United Nations Children’s Fund warned in April that the heat could put the lives of millions of children at risk and asked people who care for them to take extra precautions.

A spokesperson for UNICEF said around 243 million children were exposed to hotter and longer heatwaves.

They said the increased heat was “putting them at risk of a multitude of heat-related illnesses, and even death”.

Thirty people in Thailand have died from heatstroke in the past month, according to data from the country’s health ministry.

People are being advised to avoid outdoor activities and to stay hydrated.

Several towns in Myanmar were included on lists of the hottest spots globally last month, with temperatures reaching 48.2C (118F) in at least one case.

Parts of eastern India also experienced their hottest April on record.

Kerala, on India’s west coast, this week instructed all schools and colleges to close until Monday, while influencers in Bangladesh have encouraging people to plant trees in response to the record heat.

Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said there were three factors for heatwaves: a naturally-occurring climate phenomenon known as El Nino, an increase in global temperatures, and human-induced climate change.

Brazil is currently experiencing another climate phenomenon – La Nina – with 39 dead and 68 missing in floods across the country.

More than 24,000 people have been forced to leave their homes due to the flooding.

Scientists believe the naturally-occurring phenomenon has intensified due to the impact of climate change.

World

Philippine coastguard hits out at China’s ‘brute force’ after water cannon attack

Published

9 hours ago

May 4, 2024

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Philippine coastguard hits out at China's 'brute force' after water cannon attack

China has been branded “a bully” and an international lawbreaker after its ships blasted Philippine vessels with water cannon in the South China Sea.

Sky News was on board the BRP Bagacay when a Chinese vessel fired water at it, causing significant damage.

Philippine coastguard spokesman Jay Tarriela told Sky News that this week’s confrontation was the first time China had used “such aggression” against their ships.

“The metal parts and the railing were bent. The canopy was also destroyed. So this came as a surprise for us that China never hesitated to use brute force,” he said.

“It completely justifies us calling The People’s Republic of China a bully country.”

The Philippine coastguard was on a resupply mission to the Scarborough Shoal to deliver food and fuel to Philippine fishermen when they were struck.

The submerged reef lies in disputed waters. China claims sovereignty over the reef but it is much closer to the Philippines and lies within its legally recognised exclusive economic zone.

The vessel Sky News was on board was the closest the coastguard had ever been to the shoal – just 600 metres away from it.

Asked if the mission to the shoal was a provocative move by the Philippine coastguard, Commodore Tarriela denied they were “poking the bear” but rather “driving the bear out of our own territory”.

The Philippines has been stepping up its patrols in the area under the instruction of President Bongbong Marcos, and reasserting its claim to the shoal in recent months.

It has raised the spectre of open conflict. While neither side currently wants that, there is now a greater threat of open conflict.

Asked what the end game was for the Philippines, Commodore Tarriela said their priority was to “tell the world” about China’s aggression.

He said their secondary goal was to ensure “like-minded states” also made China “fall in line and respect international law”.

“Otherwise, it’s everybody’s loss,” he added.

Philippine government policy is not to resist using water cannon against Chinese vessels – and Commodore Tarriela insisted that policy remains in place after the confrontation.

The government also remains intensely determined to protect the waters it believes it has every right to operate in.

“We’re not going to yield and we’re not going to surrender a square inch of our territory,” Commodore Tarriela insisted.

Beijing has called the action its own coastguard took as “necessary”.

Speaking at the Chinese foreign ministry’s daily news conference, spokesperson Lin Jian described the coastguard’s conduct as “professional, proper, and lawful”.

World

Three charged over killing of Sikh separatist leader in Canada – in incident which sparked diplomatic spat with India

Published

13 hours ago

May 4, 2024

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Three charged over killing of Sikh separatist leader in Canada - in incident which sparked diplomatic spat with India

Three suspects have been charged by Canadian police over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in Vancouver last June, in an incident that sparked a diplomatic spat between Ottawa and New Delhi.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a temple by masked gunmen in Surrey, outside Vancouver, on 18 June 2023.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police assistant commissioner David Teboul said police could not comment on the nature of the evidence or the motive.

“This matter is very much under active investigation,” Teboul said.

The three suspects – Indian nationals Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh – were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

Superintendent Mandeep Mooker said: “This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic feud with India when he said in September that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the killing. India angrily denied involvement.

Mr Nijjar, an Indian-born citizen of Canada, was a leader in what remains of the Khalistan movement – a once-strong group calling for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland.

He was organising an unofficial referendum in India for an independent Sikh nation at the time of this death and had denied allegations of ties to terrorism.

The Khalistan movement has lost much of its power but is still supported by some in the Punjab state in northwestern India and in the Sikh diaspora overseas.

A violent, decade-long Sikh insurgency shook north India in the 1970s and 1980s, and was ultimately crushed in a government crackdown which saw thousands of people killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.

In June 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar, where separatists had taken refuge.

In more recent years, the Indian government has repeatedly warned that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback.

Read more: What is the Khalistan movement?

The diplomatic row saw diplomats expelled by both India and Canada.

The Indian government said it “completely rejected” Mr Trudeau’s allegations and added: “We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law.”

The dispute derailed trade talks between the two countries and ultimately saw Canada withdraw 41 of its 62 diplomats in India.

At the time, Canada did not provide public evidence to back up Mr Trudeau’s allegations. However, it did reveal the claims were based on intelligence provided by a major ally and surveillance of Indian diplomats in the country.