After six years of war, “Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe,” according to the International Rescue Committee. Confirming that terribly sad fact, Catholic Relief Services reports, “Conflict and a lack of aid has triggered a humanitarian disaster, leaving 80 percent of the population in need of assistance, including 2 million children suffering from acute Read more
Statistics show that the UK Government licensed £5,335,852,492 worth of arms to the Saudi Arabian regime in the first four years of its ongoing bombardment of Yemen (26 March 2015 – 25 March 2019). This is an increase of almost 50% on the value of arms licensed in the four years preceding the war, which Read more
International children’s rights organisation, Save the Children, is demanding the Australian government immediately stop exporting weapons to Saudi Arabia. It says 85,000 children have died in the Yemen conflict since 2015. Last August the United Nations (UN) found actions taken by the Saudi- and UAE-led coalition in Yemen might amount to war crimes. They include Read more
An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war in Yemen escalated, according to new analysis by Save the Children. Using data compiled by the UN, Save the Children evaluated mortality rates for untreated cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition. Read more
Yemen’s humanitarian crisis is alarming aid agencies and Catholic officials who are calling on combatants to end the civil war that began in 2015 to make badly needed assistance available. Yemen is facing the largest humanitarian crisis of this time, according to the United Nations. Read more
The world’s worst humanitarian crisis being played out in Yemen is about to escalate. The United Nations estimates 8.4 million people are on the brink of famine. So far at least 10,000 Yemenis have been killed since the war broke out in Yemen in March 2015. Cafod, a Catholic Aid agency, says the Saudi-led coalition’s Read more
An Indian priest abducted by gunmen in Yemen last month is safe and could be released soon, an Indian official told the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. “[Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj] has assured us Father Tom is safe and negotiations are on for his release which could happen very soon,” said Father Joseph Chinnaiyan, deputy Read more
The fate of Father Tom Uzhunnalil, a Salesian priest kidnapped in Yemen, remains unknown even after media reports suggested that Islamist militants crucified the priest on Good Friday. “I have no confirmation that anything happened Good Friday,” Bishop Paul Hinder, head of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, told the Catholic News Service. The bishop Read more
Pope Francis has condemned the attack on a home for the elderly and disabled in Yemen that killed 16 people on Friday, including four nuns of the order founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. In a message signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, Pope Francis called the attack an “act of senseless Read more
While much needed attention is being given to refugees flowing from war-torn Syria, one desperately suffering Middle East nation is barely a blip on the developed world’s radar screen. And to be honest, Yemen wasn’t on my radar screen either, until I met Barbara Deller. For 12 years Deller worked as a hospital nurse-midwife in Read more