Raxanreeb: U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said millions of people in Yemen face “a daily struggle for survival” due to conflict, poverty, drought, soaring food prices and collapsing state services.

They include 100,000 displaced by recent fighting in the south, 300,000 uprooted by a previous insurgency by Shi’ite rebels in the north, and thousands of refugees from the Horn of Africa, she said….Rising insecurity has forced U.N. agencies and other humanitarian organisations to leave or cut back their staff levels in the Arab country, the U.N.’s Amos said. Accurate information on what is happening is becoming increasingly hard to gather, she added.

“Yemen is the poorest country in the region, and has suffered chronic deprivation for years. If we don’t act now, the situation could become a catastrophe,” Amos said in a statement.

“In neighbouring Somalia, we have seen what happens if warnings go unheeded, and too little is done in time to stop a crisis. Let us not repeat the same mistake in Yemen,” she added….Meanwhile, across the Gulf of Aden in Yemen, a third of the population is suffering from hunger, and health facilities are overcrowded or simply not working, according to the United Nations.

Children have been hit hard by the fallout from the growing political chaos. In some parts of the country, one in three are malnourished – among the highest levels in the world, the U.N. says. And tens of thousands are missing out on their education due to the closure of schools, some of which are sheltering displaced families.

At least 94 children have been killed and 240 wounded by gunshots or shelling since civil unrest began in Yemen earlier this year, the executive director of the U.N. children’s fund (UNICEF), Anthony Lake, said last week.

“The children of Yemen should be busy going back to school at this time of year. Instead, they face armed men rather than teachers, bullets instead of books,” he said in a statement. “The country is sinking deeper into a humanitarian crisis.”

A joint international appeal for $290 million to respond to humanitarian needs in Yemen this year is so far 60 percent funded, according to the U.N’.s Financial Tracking Service.

ADEN, 18 August 2011 (IRIN) – Continuing fighting in various parts of Yemen, which has recently displaced thousands of people especially in Abyan Governorate and the Arhab District of Sana’a, could compromise the nutritional status of those affected, especially children, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns. This, it said, could potentially increase morbidity and mortality rates, especially among children under five.

“Yemen could become the next Somalia as child malnutrition is as big as it is in the Horn of Africa,” said Geert Cappelaere, a UNICEF representative in Yemen. While malnutrition was widespread in Yemen, the condition of many children had been worsened by displacement, he added.

A recent survey by aid agencies in the Haradh, Bakeel Al Meer and Mustaba districts of Hajjah Governorate found global acute malnutrition (GAM) among children under five at 39 percent, of which 8.5 percent were severe cases. GAM is the percentage of children over six months and under five years old who have moderate or severe acute malnutrition. Prevalence among boys was higher at 44.9 percent compared to 32.7 among girls.

The survey, which covered displaced households residing in and outside camps and host communities, also found higher GAM levels among displaced children (39.7 percent) compared to those from host communities and surrounding areas (34.7 percent).

“The preliminary levels of reported GAM are concerning and exceed the emergency threshold, which is indicative that the situation is deteriorating despite existing interventions in Haradh since December 2009,” according to a situation report issued on 16 August by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The Saleh regime’s overt strategy during the Saada War was to block food, diesel, medical supplies and international aid to Yemeni citizens in the war zones as a means of encouraging the population to turn against the rebels. While some believe those tactics are being employed currently, like deliberately cutting the electricity, even before the protests broke out, Yemen was already scheduled to run out of money by June. Many government workers have been unpaid for months, and that has little to do with the protests. However, the protests essentially have shut down businesses across Yemen, providing a further shock to a widely dysfunctional and crumbling economy that had been distorted for decades by grand corruption. More on the economics below the fold.

YOL Gian Carlo Cirri of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) says that “Yemen is undergoing its worst humanitarian crisis ever.” Cirri, who directs WFP’s Yemen mission, says “I cannot recall a time when hardship has been greater in recent Yemeni history.”

Food prices are skyrocketing in Yemen. WFP reports there has been “a 39 percent increase in the price of wheat over just five months.”

For millions of Yemenis, it is a struggle just to get bread. Families are resorting to reducing or even skipping meals or diverting money from health care. It’s a downward spiral to increased malnutrition and disease. That is what is unfolding in Yemen.

WFP is also well short of funding to meet this challenge. An emergency safety net operation will not be able to feed 600,000 intended beneficiaries because of the funding shortage. This is a program WFP wants to expand. It can provide a front of stability for a country in turmoil.

No universal child feeding exists for infants and school children. The U.S. and the international community have not come together to arrange this in Yemen.

What is important to keep in mind about Yemen is that even before the recent headline-grabbing political unrest, the country was already mired in hunger and poverty. Citing pre-unrest numbers WFP says, “Yemen had been ranked the 11th most food insecure country in the world, with one in three Yemenis suffering from food insecurity and more than half of all Yemeni children being chronically malnourished.”

disaster

Yemen Times: SANA’A, June 20 — Yemen’s nationwide fuel shortage is threatening to force the country into total economic collapse. Along with fuel, other basic services have been suspended including water and electricity.

Citizens say that if immediate action is not taken to relieve these shortages, there is potential for disaster.

In the Hodeida coastal governorate, 200 km west of the capital Sana’a, more than 15 patients, most of them elderly people and children, were reported to have died in hospitals because of extended power cuts, lasting for hours.

Locals told the Yemen Times that their lives are at risk when without diesel to run generators to pump water from wells for drinking and irrigation.

“A farmer who used to have four to five water-wells in Hodeida is now looking for water to drink because there is no diesel to run generators,” said Mahbob Hadi, an agricultural expert in Hodeida. “The farmer watches the water in the well, but can’t drink it. The situation has become unbearable,” he added.

Hadi, who works on a farm that relies on diesel for extracting well water for irrigation, explained that around 90 percent of farms in his region have stopped producing due to the diesel shortage.

“If the diesel problem continues, farms will be turned into playgrounds,” he said.

“Farms support the national economy through exporting cash crops to some neighboring countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria and consequently their stoppage will harm the economy,” said agriculture expert Mahbob Hadi.

“If this fuel shortage continues, farmers will no longer be able to sell their crops which may cause a foot shortage as well,” he added.

Ali Heil, a farm owner, told the Yemen Times that most farm work has stopped for 20 days due to the shortage.

“We use the diesel for generators to extract water and if the crisis continues, farms will disappear,” said Heil.

No alternatives

With the critical diesel shortage some farmers have resorted to using kerosene, mixing it with oil to run generators. But the increased demand on kerosene in place of diesel has also caused a kerosene shortage.

“We have been forced to use kerosene mixed with oil to run generators, but now it is also gone and we no longer able to find even kerosene,” said Heil.

Some Yemeni trucks that export cash crops to Saudi Arabia used to fill up extra diesel from Saudi petrol stations, but with the acute shortage in Yemen the Saudi authority banned any Yemeni truck from leaving the Kingdom with extra diesel, according to a Yemeni exporter who sends his trucks regularly to Saudi Arabia.

“We are out of options,” he said

“It is an economic, social and even humanitarian disaster,” said Dr. Mohamed Jubran, professor of economics at the University of Sana’a.

Between 75-80 percent of industrial plants have been shut down due to power cuts and fuel scarcity, according to the professor. “This is considered a catastrophe because around 150,000 people have lost their jobs,” he said.

“Other factories will shut down soon if power and fuel is not provided within the coming weeks,” Jubran said.

The professor warned that by the end of June, Yemen’s industrial infrastructure will come to a complete halt, causing agriculture and other economic sectors to collapse as a result.

“The problem with farms is not only represented in difficulty of water extraction to irrigate crops, but there is also no fuel to transport agricultural products and that means the agricultural sector will fail following the industrial shut down,” he explained.

The Yemen’s economy has lost around USD five billion during only three months of the political crisis which started six months ago, according to Yemen’s ministry of industry and trade in the care-taking government, Hisham Sharaf.

The professor said that this is only was confined to Yemen’s economic losses in the industry and services sector, but the agricultural damage is still unknown.

“The human cost is also worsening,” said Jubran. “Just imagine a student who has final secondary school exams in the next week and can’t find the light to study.”

“In addition water supply in urban areas was cut off due the lack of power and fuel shortage and the water price has gone up ten folds in Yemen’s cities. The price of one water truck has increased from YR 1,200 (USD 5) to 10,000 (USD 50) and the water is not drinkable,” he said.

Most stations which run by diesel have been off either power or water stations, according to Jubran.

“The administrative and consultative industry has been also suspended due to power cuts and fuel shortage,” he said.

Water disaster in rural areas

The professor indicated that there will be water disaster in Yemen’s rural areas with the suspension of the state-water projects because no other water resources in the countryside.

“In Yemen’s urban and rural areas there will be no glass of water to drink due to the power-off,” he said. “There will be catastrophe because bakeries will stop since no diesel,”

The economist said that “this comes only as tactics by the regime to keep the Yemeni people busy with their grievances in order to guarantee the people’s loyalty to the president even he is clinically dead.”

At the beginning of June, Yemen’s minister of oil said that Saudi Arabia promised to grant Yemen three million oil barrels as Yemen’s oil production was stopped on March with the attack on the Mareb oil pipeline which connects crude oil to Aden oil refineries.

“Part of this grant has just arrived Aden two days ago to be refined and distributed to Yemen’s areas and the crisis is hopefully to disappear after one week,” Abdul Qawi Al-Udaini, the press officer at the ministry of oil told the Yemen Times on Tuesday.

He explained that the size of Yemen’s tanks at refineries is not big to receive the entire Saudi grant at once and for that they receive it on parts.

An appeal call No(2) to save the people in Abyan

Issued by the Emergency Cell in Seyaj
Yemen- Sana’a- June 22nd -2011

The Emergency Cell in Seyaj organization for childhood protection calls to declare Abyan governorate as a disastrous area by all the standards.

Seyaj directs its second humanitarian appeal to all the Yemeni people to send urgent humanitarian relief convoys to the victims in Abyan of the dirty security political game that displaced , killed and violated the lives, humanity and dignity of at least more than forty thousand families.

Moreover, Seyaj calls the Arabic, Islamic and international associations and humanitarian relief organizations to send urgent humanitarian relief convoys to Abyan victims in Aden and Lahj governorates.

Seyaj also calls the acting president to take concrete actions to save the lives of his people and clan in Abyan.
Seyaj confirms that the areas of war against Al-Qaeda as called are free of country’s institutions that are capable of performing its duty to displaced people in Abyan, Aden and Lahj ,as the first responsibility lies on the Yemeni people in all its political& social activities, humanitarian organizations, religious men , youth , politicians and others of the society components.

Seyaj expresses its disappointment of the dealing with the Yemeni blood and humanity in all the crises and problems they faced compared to brothers in other Arab countries who were subjected to the same problems but with best attention.
The human disaster in Abyan did not receive any attention that results in reducing the work that solve the problems of victims.
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نداء الاستغاثة (2) لإنقاذ أهل أبين

صادر عن خلية الطوارئ بمنظمة سياج
اليمن – صنعاء – 22 يونيو 2011م

تدعو خلية الطوارئ بمنظمة سياج لحماية الطفولة إلى إعلان محافظة أبين منطقة منكوبة بكل المعايير.
وتتوجه المنظمة بنداءها الإنساني الثاني إلى جميع أبناء الشعب اليمني لتوجيه قوافل إغاثة إنسانية عاجلة إلى المنكوبين من أبناء محافظة أبين في اللعبة السياسة الأمنية القذرة التي شردت وقتلت وانتهكت أرواح وآدمية وكرامة أكثر من أربعين ألف أسرة على الأقل.
وتدعو الجمعيات ومنظمات العمل الإنساني العربية والإسلامية والدولية إلى تسيير قوافل إغاثة عاجلة بمعنى الكلمة للمنكوبين في محافظتي عدن ولحج من أبناء أبين.
كما تدعو القائم بأعمال رئيس الجمهورية إلى اتخاذ إجراءات عملية لإنقاذ أهله وعشيرته في محافظة أبين.
وتؤكد المنظمة أنه في ظل خلو المناطق المتأثرة بما يسمى بالحرب على القاعدة من مؤسسات الدولة القادرة على أداء واجبها بالشكل الذي يخفف معاناة النازحين والمشردين في (أبين, عدن, لحج وغيرها) فإن المسئولية الأولى تقع على أبناء الشعب اليمني بجميع فعالياته السياسية والاجتماعية والمنظمات الإنسانية ورجال الدين وفئة الشباب والسياسيين وغيرهم من مكونات المجتمع.
وتعرب المنظمة عن خيبة أملها من التعامل بمعايير ناقصة مع دماء اليمنيين وآدميتهم في جميع الأزمات والمشكلات التي واجهتهم مقارنة بإخوانهم في بلدان عربية أخرى تعرضوا لذات المشكلات ولكنهم يجدون اهتماماً أفضل. حيث لم تقابل الكارثة الإنسانية في أبين بما تستحق من الاهتمام الذي يترتب عليه عمل يخفف ويعالج مشكلات المنكوبي.
==================
about Seyaj

SEYAJ is NGO, non-profit, volunteering and independent organization for childhood protection in Yemen.

SEYAJ is working to build cooperative and effective relationships with related authorities locally and abroad based on truthfulness, transparency and fundamental work.

SEYAJ is based in Sana’a and work over Yemen. However it is focusing on rural areas where abuses are mostly increased to secure the basic requirements of children.

SEYAJ mission is to provide Children with their all standard rights to have good and safe life. There is no membership in Seyaj but it works through a network of active volunteers in almost all Yemeni governorates who help it to work in all Yemeni governorates

SEYAJ has full-paid staffs that has good background on media, Human & child rights issues and education

During short period of time .SEYAJ has contributed to defend and protect child rights by adopting many cases of violations and advocating children victims and obtains remarkable media presence in defending child rights

–
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منظمة سياج لحماية الطفولة- اليمن
SEYAJ Organization for Childhood Protection
Yemen – Sana’a – New University Sq
Phone:009671238866 or 009671257505
Mobile: 00967777966776 or 00967714565202
Fax:009671228184
E-mail: info@seyaj.org
Website: www.seyaj.org

http://www.youtube.com/user/seyajorg

SABA: In the news conference, Interior Minister Mutahar al Masri highlighted the circumstances of the incidents saying that preliminary information had revealed that the sit-inners outside Sana’a University have been attempting to break in houses nearby the university forcing the owners to form popular committees to protect their properties and homes.

“After the Friday inciting sermon outside the university, the sit-inners headed to the inhabited areas near the university destroying the barriers built by the people to prevent the sit-inners from pitching more tents and violent clashes took place then,” said al Masri.

The idiot announced a ban on carrying weapons, forgetting there already is a ban on carrying weapons.

Also killed today, per CPJ. Jamal al-Sharaabi, a photographer for Al-Masdar. Resignations from GPC include Minister of Tourism, Alruhany Member of Shoura Council and former Minister of Agriculture Dr. Foukara resigns.

Amnesty International: “This appears to have been a sniper attack with security forces deliberately shooting to kill protesters from strategic vantage points,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Vids: Thugs on roofs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ntzG-Xbeg
better shot of thugs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVbJK_MlvqM
unarmed protesters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifi2PbiLvK4
the injured and dead, many head shots, graphic:

12:49 pm EST President Obama issued a statement “strongly condemning” the violence in Yemen, urges Saleh to keep his pledge of non-violence toward protesters. At least its prompt and unequivocal regarding the violence, but he doesn’t call for Saleh to go but for everyone to engage in a consultation, but how do you negotiate with a murderer and a liar?

Statement by the President on violence in Yemen

I strongly condemn the violence that has taken place in Yemen today and call on President Saleh to adhere to his public pledge to allow demonstrations to take place peacefully. Those responsible for today’s violence must be held accountable. The United States stands for a set of universal rights, including the freedom of expression and assembly, as well as political change that meets the aspirations of the Yemeni people. It is more important than ever for all sides to participate in an open and transparent process that addresses the legitimate concerns of the Yemeni people, and provides a peaceful, orderly and democratic path to a stronger and more prosperous nation.

The “Revolutionary Youth” movement declares a nationwide strike tomorrow and that the state of emergency is unconstitutional and will be ignored.

Update: President Saleh declared a national state of emergency a few minutes ago. The provisions deny citizens the right to carry weapons as they are being gunned down in the streets. The Yemeni opposition party alliance JMP responded that Saleh has lost legitimacy to declare anything. Over 40 protesters were shot dead and 320 wounded in 20 minutes of continuous sniper fire into the crowd, Ch4News reports. Marib press reports that Saleh was on board the helicopter that was flying over the scene, watching the carnage. The US has consistently and strongly urged the protesters and opposition parties to engage in a dialog with the blood thirsty madman and believe the promises of a compulsive liar while setting benchmarks. The new ambassador seemed bewildered that no one believed Saleh’s latest set of lies about transferring power in a year.

Saleh was a war criminal long before these protests began in January. HRW and Amnesty urged a UN investigation of Yemen’s crimes against humanity in regard to the hundreds of protesters killed in south Yemen 2007-2010 and the carpet bombing of Saada that was accompanied by the denial of food and medical assistance from the international community as over 300,000 were displaced and starving to death. This could turn very ugly now.

Original: Over thirty were killed, including an eight year old, in what appears a pre-planned massacre. Rooftop snipers are shooting and head people in the chest. The police are standing by and watching as thugs beat unarmed protesters at Sanaa University’s al Tagheer Square. Live stream.

There appears to be a large fire in the middle of the protesters who are all packed into the main street and side streets. (Its tires brought by the thugs and set to fire minutes before the shooting started. The police were deployed wearing gas masks.) Al Jazeera is also showing what may be the new Huey’s, delivered in early February for CT ops, flying over the crowd and the fire. Update: Russian copters. New reports say Saleh was in the helicopter overlooking the scene.

Reports are that the police are prohibiting ambulances from getting to two hospitals, a standard tactic for the Saleh regime. The clinic at the square is overwhelmed and can’t handle any more injuries. Graphic vid of the dead and wounded shows many head shots. Journalist Gamal Sharbi was just killed covering the clashes.

Tank are moving in on the protesters in Taiz and all entrances to the city are blocked, al Masdar. Security forces appear to be mobilizing in Aden. Reports of violence in Mukallah. There’s still gunfire in Sanaa.

A senior GPC official (Mohammad BaLahoom) accused a faction of the regime pre-planning the slaughter in Sanaa. One of the houses from which shooting came was that of the governor of Mahweet, Ahamad Ali Muhsin al-Ahwal. Protesters broke in and burnt it. The protesters broke the wall that was blocking new protesters from joining and the crowd is expanding. Protesters captured four thugs and two snipers carrying official papers.

The $35 million Yemen Health and Population Project was approved by the Board of Directors of the World Bank today. It is designed to deliver maternal, neonatal, and child health services to those districts in Yemen where there are high concentrations of poor health indicators. In the first phase these include districts in the governorates of Sana’a, Ibb, Reimah, Al Dahla’a, Al Baydah,
and urban slums in Aden before the services roll out to additional rural governorates…”For around one million Yemenis in remote areas this will mean health services reaching them for the very first time.”

The child mortality rate in Yemen is 69 deaths for each 1,000 live births, the highest rate in the Middle East and North Africa region. At 58% for children under 5, Yemen also has the second-highest rate in the world of stunting, a measure of child malnutrition for height and age. Maternal mortality is the second highest in MENA after Djibouti with 210 deaths for each 1,000 live births in 2008.

Less than half Yemen’s population of 23 million people have access to basic health services, a problem made all the more complicated in rural areas by widely scattered and remote geographical locations.
For more information please visit: www.worldbank.org/ye

Related: Neonatal tetanus kills 10 babies a day in Yemen, 30,000 per year. Over 3 million doses of vaccine are needed to eliminate the disease from Yemen. The good news, Pampers Saudi Arabia is launching a campaign in conjunction with Saudi Arabia to raise some funds for vaccines.

Saudi Gazette: In Yemen, 30,000 babies die from maternal and neonatal tetanus every year, despite the fact that the disease is preventable through simple vaccination.
Dr. Arwa Baydar, a child health officer at UNICEF’s Yemen office, said the main reason for visiting Saudi Arabia was to raise funds. “Saudi Arabia has already been eliminated from the list of the countries who suffer from tetanus, so now our efforts are on Yemen,” she said.
Eliminating the disease means having less than one case per thousand births of children without tetanus. She said it was important to have a proper health system to ensure the sterile conditions needed to deliver babies safely. Yemen has a poor health system so vaccinating mothers can protect both of them.
She said mothers need to be vaccinated five times in their lives for complete protection. The second dose needs to be given a month after the first dose, then after six months, then one year later and the last one a year afterwards.
“In Yemen the child-bearing age is between 14 to 49 years. We have already cleared quite a number of patients, but we still need 3.4 million doses of vaccine to eliminate tetanus from Yemen,” she said.

Saleh directs Govt to expand social security network [31/1/2011

SANA’A, Jan.31(Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh directed the government on Monday to expand the network of social security by adopting 0.5 million cases of families in need in light of the results of the field survey carried out by the concerned body.

The presidential directives to the government also included exempting students enrolled in public universities from paying remaining fees of parallel tuition for 2010-2011, and assigning the Supreme Council of Universities to review the parallel tuition fees in the public universities to ensure easing burdens on students and equality of opportunities among them and achieving the public interest.

Moreover, Saleh instructed the government to establish a fund to support university students so as to ensure the creation of job opportunities for them through absorption of 25 percent of them this year and the rest of them during the coming period according to the fund’s plan.

Mr. Al Dhahab is a Yemeni practicing law in Canada with vast experience in civil activism, international law, the intricacies of Yemen’s political affairs and the social and tribal dynamics in Yemen.

Al Dhahab explained in a recent paper, The Missing Step, “What Yemen needs is an amnesty that will pardon all offenders across the board, whether political crime or corruption or tribal offenses. It requires selecting a cut-off date where selected crimes that occurred prior are nullified and crimes that happen after are prosecuted. “

Amnesty is a mechanism endorsed by the UN in exceptional circumstances. It was implemented in Algeria in 2006 and Iraq in February 2008. The concept of amnesty also has a strong basis in Islamic law, a prerequisite in the conservative country.

According to Al Dhahab, “In countries where much blood was spilt, corruption was expanding, and gross human rights violation occurred, a general amnesty was granted to establish the rule of law and encourage reconciliation. Experts believe the recovery of stability in Iraq took longer than expected because, among other reasons, the adoption of amnesty was delayed from 2003 to 2008.”

Al Dhahab dispels the idea that amnesty would simply reward the current Yemeni regime. He notes numerous upheavals where a substantial population of law breakers escaped punishment:

- The war of Independence 1963 to 1968
- Republican war 1962 to 1968
- Abdulraqeeb movement in the late 60’s
- The assassination of the three YAR presidents (1977 to 1978)
- The attempted Nasseri coup 1978
- The rebellion of the central area 1978 to 1982
- January events in 1986 and southern civil war
- The 1994 civil war and the political violence before it.
- Intifada of Al Dhalie governorate 1994 to 2000
- Saada wars 2004 –2010
- The southern uprising from 2007 to present
- Decades of tribal wars that resulted in fatalities
- Other crimes, assassinations, kidnappings and acts of revenge

“In such a case, bringing this large percentage of the population to justice is simply impossible, would cost the nation heavily or will jeopardize the efforts of reconciliation and the process of restoring the role of law. In this circumstance, the interest of the nation lies in not punishing the criminals,” al Dhahab asserts. Selective enforcement of the law and a partial justice is equally untenable and would further entrench social inequalities.

In many cases, today’s oppositionists and reform minded members of the ruling apparatus are held in check by intelligence files detailing prior misconduct and thus, “large numbers of these people have been put on the shelf.”

Al Dhahab notes that with amnesty, President Salih will have the safety to engage in real, immediate and deep political reform or he can leave the political field with dignity, and bequeath a political legacy, and his money, to his sons to engage in politics on a level playing field.

Al Dhahab suggests a national referendum as a means conferring legitimacy on the decision to grant amnesty, as it is the Yemeni people themselves who were violated by these crimes. Failing that, Parliament has the capacity to approve such a law. In the context of massive embezzlement, waiving the requirement to return stolen funds is an additional consideration.

Ensuring equal application of the law and equal punishment for all offenders following amnesty is a challenge indeed, but it is one that has been tackled before in other nations. However without a general amnesty, it appears that Yemen will remain mired in a downward economic spiral, a political stalemate and a developmental backwater. For an authentic fresh start in a positive direction, Yemen needs a general amnesty.

Jane Novak, abstract of a paper by Adel Al Dhahab

Update: And we have one answer,

Dear Jane,

That was already implicit in the unification agreement of 1990, where supposedly all of Yemen was to start a new lease on life and let bygones be bygones. These mafioso are simply incapable of ceasing their rape of Yemen and its poor and helpless people. They have no interest in anything like that. They want to bleed Yemen to death and pick up their loots and enjoy the rest of their lives in the French Riviera.

The same could also be said of the time when the Agreement of Reconciliation and Accord was signed in Amman in January 1994 when all of Yemen’s social and political elites showed the world that they are powerless to stop these mischievous bloodsuckers from carrying on with the destruction of Yemen and the annihilation of its fabric of innocence and evil free conscience.

This mob has taken the life out of 95% of the population of Yemen and now has made Yemen a playground for addicts of war games that do not care what side of the political spectrum you are on, as long as the general Yemeni population keep suffering and remain perplexed by all that goes on around them, which they are forced to submit to helplessly, as if they have no control over the course that their destinies are supposed to have them tread on.

Remember also that this is now tied to regional and international manipulations, and thus cannot be resolved by a magic wand that pours amnesty over so much filth, which will simply stop satisfying their unquenchable thirst for power and their greedy lust for worldly possessions and mundane extravagance without the slightest display of good taste and moral and ethical discipline.

Bear in mind that we are dealing with the scum of the earth, who have no qualms about taking their spongy drives to their maximum limits, and see no reason why they should ever hope for any amnesty or pardon from the people they have reduced to impoverished and hopeless souls that seem to have no beginning or end to the endless suffering these criminals continue to inflict on them unabashedly.

I am going to put that in the “no” column.

Reuters: Farmers, 70 percent of the population, can no longer subsist on their own crops. Youths are flocking from the countryside to the cities in search of jobs to provide for their families.

“Food is not going from country to city here, but from city to country,” said Gerhard Lichtentaeler of the German development agency GTZ, adding water shortages had made it impossible to sustain farming in many areas. The water table is falling one to five meters a year due to over-extraction.

One in three of Yemen’s 23 million people struggle with food insecurity, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which is advising the government.

More will go hungry in future, with the population growing at 3 percent a year and water running out. Sanaa is set to be the first capital city to run dry, by 2050, experts predict.

By then, IFPRI expects global cereal prices to have risen 39 to 62 percent even without the impact of climate change, which may raise prices by an extra 32 to 111 percent. Yemen imports at least 70 percent of its food.

“The problem is we (villagers) are already relying now on imported wheat,” Masajidi said. “Corn is just for basic needs.”

Wheat costs Yemenis up to $250 per tonne and rising prices will raise tensions in a heavily armed society where almost half the population lives on $2 a day or less.

Climate change is one more strain on the Arabian Peninsula state. The cash-strapped government has to cope with a southern secessionist movement, preserve a shaky truce with northern Shi’ite rebels and fight a resurgent wing of al Qaeda.

Unemployment is soaring in Yemen’s oil-export based economy and oil resources ebbing.

“This (food shortage) could cause regime collapse and state failure … The government will lose its advantage of providing food and economic support to the people,” said Ibrahim Sharqieh, a Yemen expert at the Brookings Center in Doha.

CRACKING THE HABIT

The government has set out a plan to improve agriculture, which accounts for 90 percent of water use, and diversify it away from cultivation of qat, a mild narcotic leaf which dominates life in Yemen.

But Lichtentaeler, who calls drought-resistant qat a “coping crop” for poor farmers struggling to make ends meet, worries that while qat growing should be discouraged, agricultural diversification may take Yemen in the wrong direction.

“We (GTZ) are actually asking them to reduce their agriculture. They need to create jobs,” he said.

Experts agree Yemen will never be able to grow all its own food. And farming diverts precious water resources — already a source of conflict between Yemenis — which will be vital for household and industrial use in the future.

“It isn’t necessarily a good thing to think about producing more food. The population is rising so fast there’s no way to create food self-sufficiency. We need to create a diversified economy,” Lichtentaeler said.

Food security, experts say, can be attained by developing an economy that generates enough income to pay for food imports. Manufacturing and mining have been suggested as alternatives to farming. Tourism in Yemen, with its traditional architecture and jagged mountains, could also generate jobs and hard currency earnings.

But such plans, which need heavy private investment, can seem fanciful in the face of Yemen’s daunting security problems.

One option that requires no investment, but carries high risks for politicians, is cutting fuel subsidies that are among the highest in the world, says Clemens Breisinger of IFPRI.

Fuel subsidies cost the government about $150 per Yemeni per year, Breisinger said.

“You can imagine that if you just give that money to every Yemeni, particularly those with food security concerns, you would have eradicated part of the problem already,” he said.

Without a change in strategy, Lichtentaeler warns, Yemen could face food riots or violence: “If they don’t diversify, people will become poorer and poorer. Then it’s a disaster.”

SABA: Nearly half of the 26,246 children aged 6-59 months screened in five western districts of Saada in July 2010 were found to be suffering from global acute malnutrition; in one area, the proportion was as high as three out of four children. Overall, 17 per cent of the children screened suffer from severe acute malnutrition and 28 per cent from moderate acute malnutrition.

“Malnutrition is the main underlying cause of death for young children in Yemen, and therefore this grim situation could spell disaster for the children of Saada,” said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Representative in Yemen. “As winter approaches, thousands of children are at serious risk if we are not able to act immediately.”

Acute malnutrition is a chronic and country-wide problem among children under five in Yemen. UNICEF figures show that 15 per cent of children nationwide suffer from global acute malnutrition. The protracted conflict in Saada has severely worsened the situation for conflict-affected children.

The extremely volatile security situation has impeded access, limiting the reach of humanitarian agencies such as UNICEF. Therefore, delivery of basic relief items, including ready-to-use therapeutic food, has been severely constrained.

Food assistance alone is not enough to address malnutrition. Major efforts are needed to support household food security, change existing feeding practices and behaviours, provide minimum basic health and nutrition services, including therapeutic food, and ensure safe water, sanitation and hygiene for populations affected by the conflict.

UNICEF therefore calls upon all parties to the conflict in Saada as well as the international community, including the Qatari mediation delegation currently visiting Yemen, to ensure that immediate access for humanitarian actors is granted to the entire governorate of Saada to ensure children can receive necessary life-saving assistance.

The community-based screening reached 26,246 children, representing 80 per cent of the total population of children aged 6-59 months in the western districts of Razeh, Munabih, Al Thaheer, Ghammer and Shada. The screening took place during a measles, OPV and Vitamin A campaign in July 2010.

Update 11/2:

SANAA, 2 November 2010 (IRIN) – A new survey reports very high levels of child malnutrition in Yemen’s conflict-hit northern governorate of Saada, particularly in districts that have seen the worst of the fighting. The rate of malnutrition equals that of a survey in Southern Sudan earlier this year which attracted media attention as discovering “the hungriest place on Earth”.

A UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)-supported survey carried out by the Ministry of Public Health and Population showed that 45 percent of the 26,246 children aged 6-59 months who were screened in five districts in western Saada (the governorate has 15 districts in all) were suffering from acute malnutrition.

“In one area, the proportion was as high as three out of four children. Overall, 17 percent of the children screened suffer from severe acute malnutrition [SAM] and 28 percent from moderate acute malnutrition [MAM],” a UNICEF statement said. [ http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/media_56582.html ]

Adding the MAM and SAM together gives a global acute malnutrition (GAM) figure of 45 percent for those children screened. This is the same figure as a survey done by NGOs Save the Children and Medair [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SKEA-83ZHT9?OpenDocument&RSS20=18-P ] in Akobo, Southern Sudan, earlier this year which led to media reports calling it “the hungriest place on Earth”.

GAM and SAM are the principal indicators used in nutrition surveys. Prevalences of GAM and SAM are based on the proportion of children aged 6-59 months whose body measurements categorize them as acutely malnourished according to various statistical guidelines and benchmarks. [ http://oneresponse.info/GlobalClusters/Nutrition/publicdocuments/WHO%20GS%20Factsheet%20English.pdf ]

The survey covered only a third of one of Yemen’s 21 governorates, but other recent assessments and surveys from the camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the host communities affected by the Saada conflict also show very high levels of acute malnutrition, according to Wisam Al-Timimi, a UNICEF nutrition and child survival specialist. The Saada survey used the Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) methodology, UNICEF told IRIN.

“Malnutrition is the main underlying cause of death for young children in Yemen, and therefore this grim situation could spell disaster for the children of Saada,” said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF representative in Yemen. “As winter approaches, thousands of children are at serious risk if we are not able to act immediately.”

Al-Timimi told IRIN the community-based surveyors for the July 2010 Saada survey were trained by UNICEF nutrition consultants and master trainers from Saada Governorate health office (part of the Ministry of Health).

“Food assistance not enough”

Intermittent fighting since 2004 is not the sole cause of the problem. In rural Yemen as a whole, there is lack of awareness about proper nutrition; bread and tea is a typical breakfast and dinner meal for both adults and children.

A projection based on 2003-2008 national data using weight, height and age indicators suggests that across Yemen, 15 percent of children aged under five suffer from GAM – that percentage already at the level the World Health Organization defines as constituting an emergency situation. But the protracted conflict in Saada between government forces and Houthi-led Shia rebels seems to have worsened the situation in the north.