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Amid an insidious war of aggression led by Saudi Arabia, Wolgang Jamann, head of the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief, a non-governmental humanitarian agency, has affirmed that the current crisis in Yemen is an absolute “shame on humanity.”
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The statement came on Saturday as he addressed reporters shortly after his five-day visit to the Arab world's poorest nation. “Sixty percent of the country is food insecure,” he said, adding that over half the population is unable to access “safe drinking water."
Jamann emphasized that many areas of Yemen are only “one step away from a famine situation,” as he implored the international community to step up and “end the suffering.”
PressTV reported that Jamann expressed concern over the destruction caused by Saudi Arabia's constant bombing of Yemen since 2015, in a war financed by the U.S. and U.K governments.
In early June the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed a US$750 million military sale to Saudi Arabia. It included U.S. made missiles, bombs, armored personnel carriers, warships, munitions, and a “blanket order training program” for the Saudi security forces receiving the military equipment both inside and outside the kingdom, according to Reuters.
In July, the British High Court ruled that the government is not breaking the law by continuing to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia, contradicting claims made in 2016 by independent observers and U.N. officials that large numbers of civilians are being killed as a result of Saudi Arabia's military campaign against Yemen.
Since the bombing began in 2015, the U.K. has licensed roughly US$4.2 billion dollars in weapons to Saudi Arabia, according to PressTV.
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"Thousands of civilians have died since the start of the conflict and millions more have been displaced inside the country," Jamann lamented.
Amid the bombing and devastation, Yemen is facing a severe cholera outbreak that has killed 1,828 people since April.
Oxfam reported that the number of suspected cases could rise to 600,000. If so, according to the charity, it would become the most widespread epidemic “ever recorded in any country in a single year since records began.”
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