I was much moved when I watched a BBC documentary last evening (Mon) titled “The boy who shocked the world”.

It has been a year since starving Saleem became the face of Yemen’s suffering. But where is he now?

“Parents can do little but hope they have something their children can eat”.

You can view the video at: http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-41313552/yemen-war-what-happened-to-saleem

On the website DW they have explained what the war is about in four key points

Yemen is in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe, yet after two years of intense fighting, it has been dubbed “the forgotten war.” DW looks at the key points in understanding the crisis.

Yemen’s recent history is one of division and bloodshed. Until the early 1960s, the country was ruled by a monarchy in the north and the British in the south. Coups in both regions plunged the country into decades of violence, ending with reunification in 1990.
The Middle Eastern nation has long been one of the region’s poorest. In 2015, it was ranked 168 out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index, which measures life expectancy, education and standard of living.
Prior to the war, Yemen’s population of more than 20 million was projected to double to by 2035. Amid high unemployment and dissatisfaction with the ruling Saleh family, the country was ready for change when the Arab Spring swept across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011.

When did the war begin?
Who is fighting whom?
Who is involved in the Saudi Arabia-led coalition?
What are the main concerns in the humanitarian crisis?

Read: http://www.dw.com/en/yemens-war-explained-in-4-key-points/a-40056866

The article concludes:

“Yemen has also been hit by a cholera outbreak deemed the worst in the world by the UN. It estimates that roughly 400,000 people have contracted the disease since April and 1,900 have died from it.
Officials have also sounded the alarm amid medical supplies shortages. Doctors without Borders has suspended its aid after two years, threatening the daily operations of Yemen’s national blood bank. The Saudi alliance has also called on the UN to help reopen the airport in Sanaa – closed in August 2016 to hinder arms shipments to the Houthi movement – amid rising numbers of Yemenis without access to adequate medical care.”

In a separate article DW asks why the yemen conflict has been all but ignored by the west?

“Atrocities are being committed against an innocent Yemeni population on a scale as serious as Syria and Iraq. But why doesn’t this story get as much media attention as those conflicts?”

“When the UN children’s rights organization UNICEF recently released a report stating that at least one child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen, the expectation was that the news would be picked up by international news outlets. But barring a few exceptions, including Al Jazeera and DW, the news was not carried by much of the global media prominently, and some not at all.
In its report, the humanitarian organization estimated that more than 400,000 Yemeni children are at risk of starvation, and a further 2.2 million are in need of urgent care. How could it be that statistics this alarming, the result of a war involving regional superpowers with the backing of the US and UK, does not make headline news?
But people close to the story say this example is just a reflection of how the war in Yemen is covered by the global media.”

“It’s a complex political situation and those closest to it – the local journalists – have been forced to stop telling the story because of the dangers they’ve been facing. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based press freedom watchdog, has recorded the deaths of at least six journalists caught in the crossfire since the start of the Saudi campaign. In its latest report, the Yemeni Journalist Syndicate said that more than 100 press violations were committed in the first six months of 2016, including 10 cases of attempted murder, 24 abductions and disappearances, and 12 cases of assaults on journalists and their offices. The situation for foreign journalists isn’t any better, amid reports that those who get access can be subject to harassment and kidnappings.”

“There isn’t a direct or immediate threat coming to western countries from Yemen,” Baraa Shiban, a London-based Yemeni human rights activist, tells DW. “There are no ‘waves’ of Yemeni refugees crossing the Mediterranean because it’s too far and if there are refugees they remain few in numbers. This is also related to the threat western countries feel they are facing. Dealing with the ‘Islamic State’ (IS) tops the list for western politicians. IS has claimed attacks inside Europe and such attacks could happen again. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been busy hitting inside Yemen – recently killing soldiers in Aden – but it’s limited in its ability to hit in Europe or the US.”

“The UK, meanwhile, approved 3.3 billion pounds (3.7 billion euros) worth of arms to the Kingdom in the first 12 months of its bombardment of Yemen. So it may not make for good business sense for the corporate media in the US and the British mainstream media to cover a war and the negative impact it’s having on civilian life when their governments are making huge profits from it.
“If there is one country in the world that has the most gross double-standards, it’s the UK. As long as the Saudis are their ally, they can overlook any of atrocities committed by their friend. Yemenis’ blood means nothing when Saudi’s cash is on the table and if you’re a foreign journalist, some big media outlets won’t buy your story because they don’t want to annoy the Saudis,” says Nasser.”

Go to: http://www.dw.com/en/yemen-conflict-all-but-ignored-by-the-west/a-37157913

Probably my tiny iNews Cayman publication isn’t going to make much difference to the poor starving innocent victims but it is out there on the Internet and might reach an audience the larger publications haven’t.

I can only weep at the suffering we humans perpetrate on each other for reasons that may have seemed fine at the time but the consequences of those actions take second place and are a disgrace on the whole of humanity.

And there is plenty of money to go around to bomb, kill and maim, with the innocent being the main victims as they have no protection nor warnings. Yet there is precious little money to feed the innocent, especially the precious little children.

They are STARVING!!!

See iNews Cayman story published today “Yemen emergency”. If you can help please do.