To ask if you know about Yemen?

[goingdownsouth]

I know the world is in an awful state at the moment.
But why don't we hear about Yemen in the news?

It's the world's biggest humanitarian crises. And with Corona virus there is now a crisis in a crisis.
There are just 31 tests per 1 million people.
No one knows what the death total really is. Reports are that cemeteries in Aden are overflowing and there are mass graves.
80% of the population, 24 million people, need aid and 12 million children are at risk.
Years of fighting and the infrastructure is collapsing. Schools and hospitals are closing
The UN tried funding raising a few weeks ago, I heard nothing about this. They are short by $1bn! to supply aid. There is a risk of famine.
It's the number one failed state, worse than Somalia, South Sudan and Syria.

I know, it’s been going on for heaven knows how many years. I googled “why does nobody care about Yemen?” trying to find a podcast episode I heard last year, and I found an article from 2016, and another one from 2017 and another one from 2018. It just seems so hopeless.

And the lack of replies to your thread indicate thus far indicates a general lack of awareness. The crisis in Yemen has been ongoing for almost 10 years.
Have we become immune to such extreme suffering? It's utterly horrific.

That's just it! We are immune.
I follow the news, not fanatically but fairly seriously.
I knew bits but not the scale of things.
How can I miss the UN trying to raise over 2 Billion Dollars?

Meanwhile the Government quietly announce plans to merge DfID with the foreign office. It’s a disgrace

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/16/foreign-office-and-department-for-international-development-to-merge

Because the media have an agenda. They report on things that the government wants us to know about. They want to rile us up and fight amongst ourselves over kids getting summer school dinners or benefit scrounges. They report on BLM but focus on the riots not the peaceful protests.

It's because it is not at people's doorstep. Simple as that. People generally care about what affects them or can affect them by being in close proximity. Should this be in Europe, there is a good chance everyone would know. It is also possible people knew, because it was reported that 5+ years ago.

I know it sounds horrible, but people simply cannot care about everything and everywhere. It's just humanly impossible. No one could bear all that.

I know about it, and have donated to charities that are supporting the Yemeni people, but rarely read anything about it now on the news. I feel a bit helpless 🤷‍♀️.

It’s not in the news much , but I’m aware of the humanitarian crisis there. It seems
Overwhelming these days to think about how we can help every shocking situation there is in the world I’ve no idea where to start .

The pics from Yemen are absolutely horrific and this devastation has been going on for years. The last time I saw photos of children so emaciated was during the 80s and the Ethiopian famine, that triggered Live Aid. But there seems to be no such will to help this time.

You can donate to help though:

www.unicef.org.uk/donate/yemen

I don’t enough, it’s rarely in the news. I just know it’s awful. Thank you for the link.

Thanks for raising awareness of this issue.

[quote Fishypants]The pics from Yemen are absolutely horrific and this devastation has been going on for years. The last time I saw photos of children so emaciated was during the 80s and the Ethiopian famine, that triggered Live Aid. But there seems to be no such will to help this time.

You can donate to help though:

www.unicef.org.uk/donate/yemen[/quote]
Just to highlight the link.

[quote Handsnotwands]Meanwhile the Government quietly announce plans to merge DfID with the foreign office. It’s a disgrace

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/16/foreign-office-and-department-for-international-development-to-merge[/quote]
It’s long overdue you mean.

I think we all have a daily / monthly pot of empathy we can pour from and when things are very tough or there are things closer to home we run out of care to give. It's emotion and sympathy fatigue.

Plus we are constantly told now that the UK is a powerless doomed mess, so it seeps in to the psyche that we can't do much.

Thank you.

I knew about this and had donated in the past but I suppose I had blocked out just how awful the pictures and videos of malnourished toddlers are or maybe I had wanted to forget about it and believe after I last donated the problem was solved.

Harrowing to see people so malnourished and I completely agree there should be more awareness of what is happening.

It’s absolutely horrific. Thanks for raising awareness, OP, as other posters have also mentioned.

I’ve heard the situation in Yemen come up a few times over the past year or so on the 10 o’clock news (BBC), but not very often. After Jo Cox was killed, I started to read about causes that she was passionate about promoting, and she seemed to be very involved in speaking out about what was happening in Yemen. I wish more MPs in Parliament would continue to raise awareness.

What really brought it home was an online advert I saw a couple of months ago. It highlighted that people in Yemen don’t commonly have access to food, clean drinking water and shelter, because of the fighting that’s happening. It was so shocking and really upsetting to see.

I completely agree that more needs to be done to raise awareness on Yemen.

I recently read about the situation in Yemen, to try and understand more about why there’s a famine and such a serious humanitarian crisis. The fact that it’s caused by political infighting and unrest is so sad and incredibly frustrating, because it absolutely shouldn’t be like this.

Added to this, the UK is selling arms to Saudi Arabia, which is continuing the fighting and killing in Yemen:
www.savethechildren.org.uk/news/media-centre/press-releases/statement-on-uk-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia. I definitely think we need to do more about this.

BrieAndChilli:

Because the media have an agenda. They report on things that the government wants us to know about. They want to rile us up and fight amongst ourselves over kids getting summer school dinners or benefit scrounges. They report on BLM but focus on the riots not the peaceful protests.

^^ I agree

There are some live amnesty campaigns relating to Yemen if anyone wants to take part / urge political action

www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/09/yemen-the-forgotten-war/

When I see people in America protesting against lockdown for things like haircuts and acting like this is the biggest human rights infringement and all their freedom is being taken away it makes me so angry because they our so blind to things like this and the state of the rest of the world.
I do feel very helpless about it though, I’m not sure what I can actually do. I pray about it though, and actively look for more ways to help

@Floella4

When I see people in America protesting against lockdown for things like haircuts and acting like this is the biggest human rights infringement and all their freedom is being taken away it makes me so angry because they our so blind to things like this and the state of the rest of the world. I do feel very helpless about it though, I’m not sure what I can actually do. I pray about it though, and actively look for more ways to help

Oh dear, *are. It’s late and I’m tired !

Arms. Who's making money?

I think lots of people are aware of it, its been relatively well publicised over the past few years.

Yes there is a smaller Yemeni diaspora globally which has contributed to there being less awareness than say Syria.

However, when you look at the issue in more depth, its clear that the crisis which governments around the world are trying to avert is creating the humanitarian crisis is the by product. Saudi Arabia could solve this very easily, but why won't they? Thats the question that you need to be informed about.

I would highly recommend listening to the Podcast 'Convicted' episode on Yemen and there is a BBC world service podcast that is quite informative.

Because, over the last 20 years, Western governments have had their fingers very badly burned In Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria etc etc. There is now no political appetite for getting involved in the internal sectarian problems of Muslim countries, because we have learned the hard way that intervention solves nothing and can only make things worse for the people who live there.

Governments which once listened to the ‘Something must be done’ brigade have learned from there mistakes.

I know about this, have been following it. I have no links to the area but I have seen a lot on Twitter. I donate to MSF who are helping, and I do my best to raise awareness on my SM feeds and write to my (useless) MP. Other than that I feel pretty helpless.