US Military Raids in Yemen Escalate as Humanitarian Crisis Worsens

MILITARY & INTELLIGENCE 03:31 25.05.2017(updated 07:05 25.05.2017)

As Yemen teeters on the brink of a cholera outbreak, the US continues to carry out military operations that frequently result in still more civilian deaths. Radio Sputnik’s Loud and Clear spoke with Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, about how US operations are making a bad situation in Yemen even worse.

Kelly stated that 250 people have already died of cholera in Yemen this month, with hundreds of new cases found every day. The roughly 2 million malnourished children in Yemen are particularly at risk for contracting the disease, she added.

Calling the health situation an "artificially created catastrophe," Kelly said a "cholera outbreak knows no borders."

"It’s an extremely alarming situation but it could be prevented from spreading. But right now you’ve got the port of Hodeidah being crippled by the destruction of five cranes that were of great importance for lifting food, fuel [and] supplies and getting in onto trucks that could take it through the country."

She noted that 90 percent of Yemen’s food is imported, and 70 percent of those imports come in through the port of Hodeidah.

"When you look at the aggregate of people who are at risk of starving to death in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Somalia, the United Nations figures are suggesting that it could be as many as 20 million people. That’s an astounding number of people to die. And to slash US contributions to United Nations agencies seems to be at this point so cruel," she said.