‘Millions hang by a thread’: extreme global hunger compounded by Covid-19

Coronavirus ‘potentially catastrophic’ for nations already suffering food insecurity caused by famine, migration and unemployment

The warning from the World Food Programme (WFP) that an extra 265 million people could be pushed into acute food insecurity by Covid-19, almost doubling last year’s total, is based on a complex combination of factors.

WFP’s latest warning underlines the increasing concern among experts in the field that for many the biggest impact will not be the disease, but the hunger hanging off its coat tails.

Continue reading...

BAE Systems sold £15bn worth of arms to Saudis during Yemen assault

Campaigners also allege latest export values imply UK arms sales greater than government’s declared figures

Britain’s leading arms manufacturer BAE Systems sold £15bn worth of arms and services to the Saudi military during the last five years, the period covered by Riyadh’s involvement in the deadly bombing campaign in the war in Yemen.

Figures taken from the company’s most recent annual report and newly analysed by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) reveal the British arms maker generated £2.5bn in revenues from the Saudi military during the whole of 2019.

Continue reading...

Four journalists in Yemen sentenced to death for spying

Court run by Houthi rebels orders release of six other journalists after time served

A court run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has sentenced four journalists to death after their conviction on spying charges, their defence lawyer has said.

The four were among a group of 10 journalists who were detained by the Iran-backed rebels and accused of “collaborating with the enemy”, in reference to the Saudi-led coalition that has been at war with the Houthis since 2015, Abdel-Majeed Sabra said.

Continue reading...

Saudi Arabia begins two-week ceasefire in Yemen due to coronavirus

Aid agencies welcome move amid fears virus outbreak could devastate war-torn country

Saudi Arabia has started a two-week unilateral ceasefire in Yemen, in a move designed to show its awareness of the threat the coronavirus poses to a war-torn country with only rudimentary health services.

So far no Covid-19 cases have been reported in the country. However, Saudi Arabia, with which Yemen shares a border, has suffered more than 40 deaths and is projecting many more. Yemen has closed its borders.

Continue reading...

The UK feigns ignorance, but five years on it’s still intimately involved in Yemen’s war

The British government refuses to track the use of its weapons in a conflict that has targeted civilians and healthcare facilities, and now a coronavirus outbreak looms

The coronavirus pandemic has forced questions of life and death to the fore around the world. National health infrastructures risk being overwhelmed, food supply chains are struggling to keep up with stockpiling, and restrictions on movement are enforcing social distancing. Worries about loved ones and fears for the future combine with outbreaks of neighbourliness and solidarity.

The questions about who is – or should be – responsible for mitigating the crisis and addressing its worst effects are being raised urgently. For many this is the new reality. But for those in conflict zones, such as Yemen, basic survival has long been the pressing preoccupation.

Continue reading...

Revealed: £1bn of taxpayers’ cash to help foreign countries buy British arms

Campaigners say plan will end up fuelling conflict and human rights abuses

The government has quietly drawn up proposals to lend other countries £1bn of public money so that they can buy British-made bombs and surveillance technology.

The move has been attacked by arms-control campaigners who say that taxpayers’ cash may end up fuelling conflict and human rights abuses.

Continue reading...

Clashing UAE and Saudi interests are keeping the Yemen conflict alive

As the fifth anniversary of the Saudi and Emirati coalition intervention dawns, the prospect of peace is further away than ever

Aisha al-Temmimi, 21, has never adjusted to the dust and heat of the Yemeni desert city of Marib. Her family are from the lush green highlands of Hajjah in the country’s north, but were forced to leave after fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and government forces reached their village two years ago.

Marib, already rich in oil and gas reserves, has become something of a boom town since Yemen’s war broke out, a place where those displaced by violence elsewhere in the country have found relative safety. Even Marib’s stability, however, has proven fragile after fierce new battles to the north and west of the city.

Continue reading...

Locust crisis poses a danger to millions, forecasters warn

Experts fear swarms like those seen in Africa will become more common as tropical storms create favourable breeding conditions

The locust crisis that has now reached 10 countries could carry on to endanger millions more people, forecasters have said.

Climate change created unprecedented conditions for the locusts to breed in the usually barren desert of the Arabian gulf, according to experts, and the insects were then able to spread through Yemen, where civil war has devastated the ability to control locust populations.

Continue reading...

Health workers targeted at least 120 times in Yemen conflict – report

Analysis reveals devastating impact from warring parties on country’s hospitals and doctors

Hospitals and doctors in Yemen have been targeted at least 120 times by the conflict’s warring parties, according to a report that gives the most comprehensive analysis to date of the devastating effect of war on the country’s healthcare system.

There were 120 incidents across 20 of Yemen’s 22 govern​orates between March 2015 and December 2018, including airstrikes, ground attacks, military occupation, assaults on health workers and other violations such as looting and restrictions on humanitarian aid, according to analysis co-published by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Yemeni human rights group Mwatana on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

In the rubble of Taiz, all roads to a normal life are blocked

Once Yemen’s capital of culture, the city is split between Houthi and government control – and a drive that used to take five minutes now takes five hours

In a conflict often called the “forgotten war”, one Yemeni city feels most forgotten of all.

“I want the whole world to know about Taiz,” declares Mohammed Saleh al-Qaisi. “I want them to see what Taiz was, and what’s happening now.” We’re sitting on a step on a street buzzing with motorcycles and the tinkle of bicycle bells. A few shops away, young men drinking hot sweet tea cradle rifles in their laps and wave at passersby. Above them, a billboard advertises books from Cambridge University Press and McGraw-Hill.

Continue reading...

Dominic Raab heads off to the Gulf with a full agenda

War in Yemen and Saudia human rights repression will keep foreign secretary busy

Dramatic Houthi rebel advances and threats to end humanitarian aid in Yemen will lead Dominic Raab’s agenda when he makes his first visit to Saudi Arabia on Monday.

The British foreign secretary will also travel to Muscat later this week to meet the new Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, to discuss his role in any mediation talks in Yemen.

Continue reading...

Yemen airstrikes kill 31 civilians after Saudi jet crash

‘Terrible’ attack thought to be Saudi-led reprisal for the shooting down of one of its planes that was claimed by Houthi rebels

Thirty-one people were killed in air strikes on Yemen on Saturday, the United Nations says, the victims of an apparent Saudi-led retaliation after Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed to have shot down one of Riyadh’s jets.

The Tornado aircraft came down on Friday in northern Al-Jawf province during an operation to support government forces, a rare shooting down that prompted operations in the area by a Saudi-led military coalition fighting the rebels.

Continue reading...

Qassim al-Rimi: US forces killed al-Qaida leader in Yemen, Trump confirms

Al-Rimi had claimed responsibility for a shooting at a Florida naval base, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors

Donald Trump confirmed on Thursday that a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen killed Qassim al-Rimi, an al-Qaida leader who claimed responsibility for last year’s deadly shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors.

Unconfirmed reports of his death, including indicative tweets from the president, have been circulating since 31 January, but the neither the Department of Defense nor the CIA had issued official confirmation.

Continue reading...

Trump appears to confirm killing of al-Qaida leader in Yemen

  • New York Times reports Qassim al-Rimi of AQAP believed dead
  • President retweets intelligence analyst and reporter

Donald Trump appeared on Saturday to confirm the death of Qassim al-Rimi, the leader of an al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen, through a series of tweets.

Related: Yemeni terror chief warns US: 'Your security has broken away'

Continue reading...

Africa is humanitarian ‘blind spot’: the world’s top 10 forgotten crises – report

Climate emergency is fuelling drought, food poverty and disaster in the global south but humanitarian crises under-reported

The African continent is a “blind spot” for coverage of the humanitarian crises that are being fuelled by the climate emergency, according to a new analysis [pdf].

Madagascar’s chronic food crisis, where 2.6 million people were affected by drought in 2019, came top of the list of 10 of the most under-reported crises last year, Care International’s annual survey found.

Continue reading...

Yemen rise in violence threatens to derail peace moves, UN warns

Special envoy calls for emergency meeting of security council as violence flares

The sudden surge in violence in Yemen could scupper fragile moves towards a peace settlement, the UN’s special envoy for the country has said.

“We have to get the genie back in the bottle,” said Martin Griffiths. “Whoever started this renewed violence, it is unequivocally the case that there has been a huge rupture of confidence and a huge loss of life for the sake of uncertain territorial gains.”

Continue reading...

Britain must be held to account for its role in the war in Yemen

As the death toll in Yemen passes 100,000, questions must be asked about UK arms exports to the Saudi-led coalition

As British politics reverberates with the results of the general election and Brexit approaches, the announcement from researchers that the death toll in the war in Yemen now exceeds 100,000 went unnoticed in the mainstream press at the end of last year.

With heightened US-Iranian hostility after the US government’s killing of Qassem Suleimani, the prospects for the war in Yemen look increasingly bleak.

Continue reading...

Houthi rebels kill at least 70 Yemeni soldiers in missile attack on mosque

Military sources say the attack came during evening prayers at a military base in Yemen’s Marib province

Houthi rebels have killed at least 70 Yemeni soldiers in a missile attack on a mosque in the central province of Marib, according to medical and military sources.

The Houthis attacked a mosque in a military camp in Marib – about 170km (105 miles) east of Sanaa – during evening prayers on Saturday, military sources said.

Continue reading...