Yemen: The Forgotten Crisis

(Vatican Radio) On Monday 11th April, a cessation of hostilities between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels was brokered by the UN.

The truce comes after months of heavy fighting in Yemen, which has seen more than 6000 people killed, the majority of which are civilians. Up to 2.5 million people have also been displaced by the conflict, which has left the country in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

Vatican Radio’s Georgia Gogarty spoke with Josephine Hutton, the Regional Programme Manager Middle East at Oxfam, who described the ‘critical’ situation in Yemen as a ‘forgotten crisis’.

Listen: 

Main issues facing the country

Hutton said more than 50% of Yeminis are in need of food and assistance, with more than a quarter ‘at the edge of famine’.

Problems with the commercial sector have resulted in a huge lack of goods and as a result of low income civilians are unable to procure their basic needs in a market where they can afford them.

 Looking to the future

The truce marks the first sign of a resolution in the country, with peace talks being set to take place in Kuwait next week.

Talking about the future hopes for Yemen, Hutton expressed the importance of organisations like Oxfam and governments of the world supporting ‘a peace process that’s functional’ whilst engaging their own populations’ interest in the conflict and being ‘a positive force for change’. Funding must be provided by foreign governments in order to meet the massive humanitarian need.

When asked about the Pope Francis’s appeal for the safe return of an Indian Priest, kidnapped by the Islamic State in Yemen, Hutton spoke about the importance of world leaders in drawing attention to a conflict which the world has chosen to forget.

(Georgia Gogarty)