Ayman Ahmed
Even as the Saudi-led coalition of aggressors announced a two-week ceasefire in Yemen that was to begin on April 9, the invaders continued to bomb the dirt-poor country.
The Houthi-led resistance movement accused the Saudi-led coalition of carrying out several bombing raids that day.
Meanwhile, the UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths joined several other UN envoys for Middle Eastern countries on April 11 calling for unconditional ceasefire in conflict zones while the region—and the world—confronts the serious threat from COVID-19 pandemic.
A day earlier (Friday April 10), in an act of brazen piracy, US and Saudi marine units confiscated 17 ships loaded with food and fuel destined for Yemen.
The vessels had the necessary permits from the UN to deliver desperately needed supplies to the war-torn country.
The Guardian newspaper of London quoting the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (Acled), had reported the death toll in Yemen’s war since 2015 had reached 100,000 by October 2019.
Calling Yemen’s ‘the largest food crisis in the world,’ the World Food program says, “Children are bearing the brunt – a child dies a preventable death every ten minutes. A whole generation is at risk. In hospitals across the country, acutely malnourished children are on the brink. But they don’t have to die, they just need food.”
“The cumulative number of suspected cholera cases reported in Yemen from October 2016 to January 2020 is 2,316,197,” according to reliefweb.int.
It was to assist the famine-stricken people and cholera-ravaged children of Yemen that food and fuel supplies were being sent to Yemen.
But the aggressors would rather see children and the elderly die of disease and starve to death than allow any relief sent to them.
Of the 17 ships, 14 were carrying fuel while three had food.
“We are facing a new case of piracy by Saudi Arabia and its allies,” Yemeni television station Al Masirah reported from Al-Hudayda port.
Yemen also reported its first COVID-19 case on Friday April 10, coinciding with the US-Saudi act of piracy.
For Yemeni resisters, whether hunger, disease or COVID-19 cause the people to die, the end result is the same.
They are facing ruthless enemies that are hell-bent on killing them and the Yemeni children.
The resistance is left with little choice but to continue to struggle to save their country and honour.
