Rory Stewart, it is time to act to the Yemen’s looming famine

© Samuel Hauenstein Swan 

By Samuel Hauenstein Swan

“I came to listen and learn from you responding to the needs of mothers, fathers and their children in Yemen,” said Rory Stewart MP, UK Minister of State for International Development. This was back in January, Now that the United Nation has announced that there is a Famine looming in Yemen will the United Kondome act on what the minister heard. Priorities what is morally the right thing to do over economic gains from selling arms that are used in this war?

Nearly three hundred delegates participated in the civil society conference on Yemen organised by Action Against Hunger with six other NGOs delivering assistance to civilians affected by the conflict. Donor officials, government representatives, UN delegates and development practitioners, followed the call by Yemeni civil society and aid agencies working in Yemen, to urgently discuss humanitarian challenges and possible options for scaling up humanitarian response.Delegate urged officials to do everything in their power to stop the vicious campaign in Yemen that has cost tens of thousands of lives and left a country in ruins. With some of the biggest powers complicit in the tragedy by supporting armies on all sides. Support that comes with huge economic gains

Nearly three hundred delegates participated in the civil society conference on Yemen organised by Action Against Hunger with six other NGOs delivering assistance to civilians affected by the conflict. Donor officials, government representatives, UN delegates and development practitioners, followed the call by Yemeni civil society and aid agencies working in Yemen, to urgently discuss humanitarian challenges and possible options for scaling up humanitarian response.

Delegate urged politicians and officials to do everything in their power to stop the vicious campaign in Yemen that has cost tens of thousands of lives and left a country in ruins. With some of the biggest powers complicit in the tragedy by supporting armies on all sides. A support that comes with huge economic gains for wealthy nations and their arms industries.

The conference participants urged stakeholders to revert current tactics and instead invest in peace. Yet, even if negotiations progress it is likely that the crisis will continue. There was an urgent call therefore for donors to increase funding and address the overwhelming needs spelt out in the Humanitarian Response Plan. The conference heard from Yemeni local NGO partners how an aerial campaign has left much of the infrastructure in rubbles and created a climate of fear whereby civilians no longer dare to seek assistance in hospitals, public buildings or schools for fear of these being targeted. Food and economic activities have collapsed, the central bank has no cash to pay public sector workers, and parents have no means to care for their children.

The systematic embargo imposed and enforced by regional and global their global allies mainly the UK and the US, in a country greatly dependent on food imports, triggered high commodity prices resulting in a profound deterioration of the nutritional situation, and hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk. An estimated 1.5 million children have fallen ill with acute malnutrition – 370,000 of whom are suffering from its most severe form. One of the leading causes of civilian deaths in Yemen’s conflict are mothers and children dying due to lack of routine health and nutrition services and lack of safe drinking water.

In the midst of violence Action Against Hunger’s team on the ground has scaled up its programmes, reaching an increasing number of children with nutrition stabilisation centres in four governorates. Our teams are running mobile clinics in the worst affected areas where health post and hospitals have stopped functioning. We are not the only international organisation to do so; nonetheless what is clear to us and other aid agencies operating in these dangerous conditions is that there is a need to increase the humanitarian capacity and diplomatic commitment on the ground.

We heard and praised the courage of the Dutch and Swedish representatives to conduct official visits to Sana’a, the principal city in North Yemen. Civil Society invites more diplomatic dialogue to explain to regional and local leaders the humanitarian principals and reach a diplomatic consensus on the engagement of aid agency and aid delivery with Yemen’s leaders.

The only UK official visiting Yemen in years is Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP and former Secretary of State for International Development who shared his thoughts with the participants. He summarised what he saw with the following lines: “Yemen is not starving, Yemen is being starved”. He concluded by suggesting that the UK’s inconsistent policies towards Yemen could be transformed into a force for good: “The UK can play a leading role in finding political solutions to the conflict in Yemen and to address the humanitarian crisis.”

The conference concluded with four direct calls to actions:

The international community and in particular the United Kingdom should redouble its efforts to reinvigorate the peace process, stop fueling the conflict with arms sales and press for meaningful inclusion of civil society voices at all levels to ensure any deal reached is understood and supported especially inside Yemen.

Political will must be found and implemented at all levels to ease restrictions on the flow of goods into and around the country. The cranes for Hodeidah port should be allowed into the country, commercial airspace should be reopened, and approval processes for the movement of humanitarian goods and personnel should be streamlined.

The Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan needs to be fully funded. 2016 ended with an unacceptable shortfall of 40% of the needed resources. Funding needs to be flexible and responsive to the challenges of the ground and longer-term development needs.

Donors and governments should engage inside Yemen as well as with regional governments to increase their understanding of the realities of delivering humanitarian assistance but also allow them to build the relationships needed to apply diplomatic pressure in support of the humanitarian response and international humanitarian law.

The conference was a loud call to action. The many contributions throughout the day were a show of unity among humanitarian organisations and local civil society for donors and governments to raise their game and stand by the victims of this war.

Rory Stewart MP, UK Minister of State for International Development, asked to hear more about the challenges faced by the humanitarian sector and how UK Aid particular and the British Government as a whole could assist and inconsistent policies could be resolved. Conference participants spoke about the many innovative solutions that they are implementing and proposing. Rory Stewart said he will have the opportunity to bring the outcome of this meeting to his counterparts in Spring 2017 when donors and governments will meet to discuss Yemen and the looming Famine. Conference participants expressed their hope that besides a generous pledge and support for humanitarian action, the high-level Spring meeting will renew political will for a process to end one of the four most deadly conflicts worldwide.

Yemen – Udai Faisal

In this March 22, 2016 photo, infant Udai Faisal, who is suffering from acute malnutrition, is hospitalized at Al-Sabeen Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. Udai died on March 24. Hunger has been the most horrific consequence of Yemen’s conflict and spiraled since Saudi Arabia and its allies, backed by the U.S., launched a campaign of airstrikes and a naval blockade in 2015. #

Maad al-Zikry / AP

Yemen – Saida Ahmad Baghili, 18

Saida Ahmad Baghili, 18, who is affected by severe acute malnutrition, sits on a bed at the al-Thawra hospital in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Yemen, on October 24, 2016. Reuters followed Saida’s story after this, and on December 6, reported, “Now, after weeks of specialist hospital care in the capital Sanaa, though she can still barely speak and sometimes finds eating more difficult than ever, she can at least smile.” Nearly two years of war between a Saudi-led Arab coalition and the Iran-allied Houthi movement has deepened the plight of Baghili’s family and millions of other Yemenis. In her parched village on the Red Sea coast, impoverished residents have long struggled to put food on the table. Doctors believe Saida’s condition—which began several years before the war began—has damaged her throat, and when her family first brought her to a regional hospital in October, she could barely keep her eyes open or stand. “We admitted Saida to find out the cause of her inability to eat, and it’s clear that she suffers from severe malnutrition,” Doctor Wasfi al-Zakari of Sanaa’s al-Thawra hospital said. “Her health remains chronic, and her bones remain fragile due to stunted growth. In all likelihood, they will never return to normal,” he said. #

Abduljabbar Zeyad / Reuters

Portraits of South Sudanese Refugees

A nostalgic look at the crisis in South Sudan by photographer Ugo Borga has spent the last 15 years in Africa, the Middle East and Europe documenting places devastated by war. In March, he traveled to South Sudan to cover the ongoing conflict that’s been plaguing the country since officially declaring its independence from Sudan in 2011. link

The long walk of Cheposokoi and Pkorir

Cheposokoi: Story from the field in West Pokot Kenya 
Cheposokoi walked for all morning from her village high up in the mountains to find a nutrition health worker. Carrying Pkorir, her baby, and a small bag filled with an empty water bottle and a little-ripped towel, she finally reached the centre under the intense heat of the afternoon sun. 

There are dozens of other mother’s waiting patiently at the Action Against Hunger screening site. When the community health volunteer examines Pkorir’s, the signs of malnutrition are evident, the baby is severely acute malnourished. He has lost more than third of his wight, has diarrhoea for days and is unable to eat. Without hesitation, Cheposokoi and her baby are rushed to the stabilisation centre in Sigor’s Regional Hospital. 

County Nutrition Coordinator for the Ministry of Health, Leah Chelobei, says: “There is an immense problem of malnutrition in our country and one of the biggest challenges we face in knowledge gaps with our health workers. We need to build the capacity of all levels – mothers, health workers, nurses and doctors – to raise awareness about the danger of malnutrition and identify children like Pkorir long before there are this weak.” 

www.SamBronx-Photo.ch

Five year independence celebrated in hunger

Ongoing insecurity, high food prices, and major food deficits have pushed large numbers of already vulnerable people in South Sudan over the edge, leaving them struggling to meet their basic survival needs.

Powerful first voice video Link

all Video and photos: Guy Calaf for Action Against Hunger-USA

22 years old Agauwol Akec, sustenance farmer and mother of 5 children, collects weeds and branches to build a hut for a neighbor in the hopes of getting payed some small cash or some food, in her home village of Yargot, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan on May 7th, 2016.

Sanaa, Yemen, on January 24, 2016.

 

In this Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016 photo, a malnourished child lies in a bed waiting to receive treatment at a therapeutic feeding center in a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. This child is one of millions of people across countries like Syria, Yemen and Iraq are gripped by hunger, struggling to survive with little help from the outside world. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

A malnourished child lies in a bed waiting to receive treatment at a therapeutic feeding center in a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, on January 24, 2016. This child is one of millions of people across countries mired in conflict like Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, gripped by hunger, struggling to survive with little help from the outside world.