Yemen Experiences World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis

Yemen’s ongoing civil war has left 24 million in need of assistance and more than 100,000 dead since the conflict began in late 2014. Today, Yemen is considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and is on the brink of being labeled by the United Nations as the world’s worst famine in 100 years. 

A hungry Yemeni child eats a food bag. USAID_IMAGES. CC BY-NC 2.0.

Hunger, malnutrition, famine, displacement and mental health issues are among some of the devastating consequences imposed upon Yemeni civilians by the country’s civil war. Although the conflict between Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi’s government and the Houthi, or Ansar Allah, armed movement broke out in late 2014, Yemen was already one of the most vulnerable countries in the Middle East.

Following the Arab Spring in late 2011, previous Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to turn over his power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Since then, the country has been enthralled in a civil war which has left millions of civilians hungry homeless, or dead. Houthi forces took over Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, in late 2014, instigating the war. By early 2015, Houthi officials declared mobilization to overthrow Hadi’s regime and, only a day later, fighting broke out in Lahij Governorate. Lahij Governorate quickly succumbed to Houthi rule and President Hadi fled the nation. 

With the help of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia created a coalition of mostly Sunni Arab states to combat Houthi forces and the rise of Iranian influence in the Middle East in 2015. Today, much of the conflict in Yemen is a proxy conflict for the power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the region. 

The Arab coalition conducted countless air campaigns to drive out Houthi forces from Yemen and facilitate the return of Hadi’s government, despite the trail of destruction these air strikes leave behind. Funerals, weddings, homes, mosques, schools and hospitals have all fallen victim to these bombs. In response to an attack on Saudi Arabia’s eastern oil fields—which disrupted nearly five percent of the world’s global oil supply—Saudi Arabia spearheaded a bombing campaign. According to the Yemen Data Project, the conflict and air strikes since 2015 left around 17,000 Yemeni civilians dead or injured, as of March of 2019. 

According to the United Nations, Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. With over 100,000 people killed and 85,000 children dead from famine, the UN warned that millions of Yemenis could face starvation in what could be “the world’s worst famine in 100 years.” Currently, 16.2 million Yemenis are food insecure while famine continues to rise; child malnutrition there is one of the highest in the world, with two million children in need of acute malnutrition assistance; and at least one child dies of malnutrition or diarrhea every 10 minutes in Yemen. 

Displacement is another major consequence of the war in Yemen. With more than five million people estimated to have been forced to flee their homes, four million Yemenis remain displaced today. These displaced families live in camps of makeshift shelters, forcing them to continue moving around and making them vulnerable to severe weather conditions, air strikes and other dangers. In addition to the overwhelming number of displaced and homeless Yemenis, the nation is also home to around 300,000 refugees mostly from the Horn of Africa.

The devastating impacts of Yemen’s ongoing war does not stop at the physical realm—consequences of the violence have affected the mental health of Yemeni youth. According to Columbia Global Centers’ PGIF Project, a 25-year-old living in Yemen today “has already lived through 15 major conflicts and wars,” making depression, PTSD and other mental health disorders common in Yemen’s youth. Considering the lack of infrastructure and medical facilities already in Yemen, mental health concerns are pushed to the backburner. With roughly one psychiatrist per 500,000 people, only three mental health hospitals exist in Yemen. The lack of mental health services and resources has forced individuals who battle with mental health issues to turn to alternate methods of help, such as Quranic healing, while professional help is reserved for more extreme disorders, such as psychosis. 

PTSD is one of the most common products of war, and this is evident with  Yemeni children. Growing up with bombs dropping all around them, PTSD in Yemeni civilians and children is often triggered by loud noises and the sounds of planes whooshing overhead. Behavioral changes such as bedwetting, isolating oneself and emotional detachment are common consequences of PTSD in children. 

Beyond death by air strike or on-the-ground fighting, many Yemenis have lost their lives to hunger and diseases because of restrictions on humanitarian assistance, imports and access to essential services. Because of this, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres refers to Yemen’s crisis as “man-made.” Many third party nations, organizations and institutions have requested the warring countries involved to improve civilian protection, but have experienced little success. Now, many activists have taken to social media to garner support and aid for Yemen’s children, as well as raise awareness of Yemen’s situation—for being the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, Yemen is often underrepresented in the media.

GET INVOLVED

Despite the restrictions on humanitarian aid in Yemen, there are still ways to help. Save the Children is one of the largest organizations operating in Yemen and is currently aiding children suffering from malnutrition, supporting health facilities in hard-to-reach areas and leading educational programs. 

The international organization, World Food Programme, aims to provide 13 million people with food assistance across Yemen. To accomplish this goal and ensure their efforts are uninterrupted in 2021, the WFP is seeking to raise $1.9 billion. 

The Danish Refugee Council offers partnership opportunities to private companies, where partners will have the opportunity to help solve the global displacement crisis. The DNC is a trusted partner of the United Nations, is rated the world’s third best non-governmental organization, and is a Core Humanitarian Standards certified organization.

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Mia Khatib

Mia is a rising senior at Boston University majoring in journalism and minoring in international relations. As a Palestinian-American, Mia is passionate about amplifying the voices of marginalized communities and is interested in investigative and data-driven journalism. She hopes to start out as a breaking news reporter and one day earn a position as editor of a major publication.

Images of Suffering Can Bring About Change – But Are They Ethical?

In a series of provocative photographs, poor children in India were made to pose in front of fancy tables covered with fake food. A prize-winning Italian photographer, Alessio Mamo, took these pictures in 2011, as part of a project called “Dreaming Food.” After the World Press Photo Foundation shared the photos on Instagram, they sparked a bitter controversy. Many considered them unethical and offensive.

In his apology, Mamo described his desire to show to a Western audience “in a provocative way, about the waste of food.” He was attacked for lacking cultural sensitivity and violating 21st-century photographic ethics.

Despite such risks, as a public law scholar, I am aware that images of suffering are often part of human rights campaigns. And freedom of expression, including visual representation, is protected by a United Nations treaty and many national constitutions.

At the same time, however, I argue for ethical limitations on the right to take pictures.

Moral questions

The controversy around Mamo’s so-called “poverty porn” images is not the first time that such questions have been raised.

The iconic photograph ‘Migrant Mother’ by Dorothea Lange, on display at the Oakland Museum of California. AP Photo/Eric Risberg

One such case was that of the 1936 black-and-white photograph of Florence Owens Thompson that became the iconic image of the “Migrant Mother” during the Depression. Photographer Dorothea Lange took the picture for Resettlement Administration, a New Deal agency tasked with helping poor families relocate. It showed Thompson, with her children, living in poverty.

The family survived on frozen vegetables and birds they hunted. The photo was intended to build support for social welfare policies.

The photo raised some moral questions.

While Lange shot to fame, no one knew the name of the woman. It was only decades later that Thompson was tracked down and agreed to tell her story. As it turned out, Thompson didn’t profit from “Migrant Mother” and continued to work hard to keep her family together. As she said later,

“I didn’t get anything out of it. I wish she hadn’t taken my picture. … She didn’t ask my name. She said she wouldn’t sell the pictures. She said she’d send me a copy. She never did.”

Thompson felt “bitter, angry and alienated,” over the “commodification” of her image, wrote scholars Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites, in their study of powerful images.

Thompson was the poster child for the Depression, and she did take some pride in that. Her photo benefited many. But, as she asked a reporter, “what good’s it doing me?”

What’s the role of a photographer?

Another striking example is a 1993 photo by South African photographer Kevin Carter showing a young Sudanese girl, with a vulture perched near her. The iconic image captured public attention by focusing on the plight of children during a time of famine.

Kevin Carter’s photo shows a starving girl with a vulture next to her. Cliff

Unlike other images depicting starving children with “flies in the eyes,” this one highlighted the predicament of a vulnerable famine victim, crawling to a food station in Ayod, in South Sudan.

The picture won Carter a Pulitzer Prize in 1994, but also precipitated an avalanche of criticism. Although Carter scared the vulture away, he did not carry the girl to the nearby food station. The fate of the girl remained unknown.

In a critical essay about the image, scholars Arthur and Ruth Kleinman asked: Why did the photographer allow the predatory bird to move so close to the child? Why were her relatives no where to be seen? And, what did the photographer do after he took the picture?

They also went on to write that the Pulitzer Prize was won “because of the misery (and probable death) of a nameless little girl.” Some others called Carter “as much a predator as the vulture.”

Two months after receiving the Pulitzer, in July 1994, Carter took his own life. Apart from his own challenging personal circumstances, his suicide note revealed that he was haunted by the vivid memories of the suffering that he witnessed.

Pictures for charity

Admittedly, famine, poverty and disasters need attention and action. The challenge for journalists, as scholar David Campbell notes, is to mobilize public reactions before it is too late.

These catastrophes require prompt intervention by government and relief agencies, through, what human rights scholar Thomas Keenan and others call, “mobilizing shame” – a way of exerting pressure on states to act to rescue those in dire circumstances.

Such an effort is often more effective if images are used. As Rakiya Omaar and Alex de Waal, co-directors of African Rights, a new human rights organization based in London, note,

“The most respectable excuse for selectively presenting images of starvation is that this is necessary to elicit our charity.”

The truth is, these images do have an impact. When James Nachtwey, an American photographer, took photos of the famine in Somalia, the world was moved. The Red Cross said public support resulted in what was then its largest operation since WWII. It was much the same with Carter’s image, which helped galvanize aid to Sudan.

Nonetheless, as Campbell contends, media coverage can reinforce negative stereotypes through an iconography of famine or images of those starving in “remote” places like Africa. His argument is that individuals continue to present people in what the Kleinmans call the “ideologically Western mode.”

In this framing, the individual appears without context, usually alone, and without the ability to act independently.

Changing representations

Greater awareness of the power of images in different contexts has exerted pressure on NGOs and journalists to shift from a “politics of pity” to a “politics of dignity.”

In 2010 Amnesty International issued photo guidelines, regarding rules for images that show suffering. Save the Children also drafted a manual after conducting research on image ethics in various parts of the world.

Explicit rules include not posing subjects, avoiding nudity and consulting subjects about the way they believe the narrative ought to be presented visually. A major concern has been how sometimes the subjects and scene might be manipulated to orchestrate an image.

What this reflects is a desire to show greater sensitivity to the precarious status of some subjects in photographs.

But this is easier said than done. Recognizing that voyeuristic interpretation of distant suffering is offensive does not necessarily mean this practice will cease. The real challenge ultimately is that the ethically problematic images that present “pitiful” victims to the world are often the ones that capture public attention.

Eventually, much rests on the stringent ethical standards that photographers set for themselves. What they do need to remember, is that often, good intentions do not justify the use of questionable images of suffering.

ALISON DUNDES RENTEIN is a Professor of Political Science, Anthropology, Public Policy and Law at the University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE CONVERSATION

South Sudan Continues to Face Starvation Crisis

100,000 are starving in the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945

A refugee camp in Minkaman, Awerial County, home to those who have fled due to fighting in Bor. Geoff Pugh 1/13/2014.

     In 2011, South Sudan declared independence from Sudan, following over 50 years of civil war. Despite what were then high hopes for the new nation, South Sudan fell again into civil war, only two years after its new-found independence. The conflict experienced a brief respite do to a peace agreement in 2015, only to be followed by more violence as president Salva Kiir clashed with vice president Riek Machar. The conflict continues to have an incredibly destructive presence in the lives of everyday South Sudanese citizens, many of whom have been caught up in the conflict, forced to leave their country, or joined the 3.5 million displaced from their homes.

    Because of these circumstances, South Sudan is currently experiencing what has been called the worst famine since World War II. Due to scarcity, food has become almost completely unaffordable, making it incredibly difficult for people to buy the bare minimum of nutrition necessary for survival. Poor roads, more than half of which become inaccessible during South Sudan’s rainy season, make it difficult for aid agencies to reach people by ground via trucks or barges. This means that aid must be delivered by airdrop, which is considerably more expensive and less affective, not to mention hazardous for those receiving it. Patricia Danzi, head of operations for Africa of the International Committee of the Red Cross, estimates that humanitarian aid is seven times more expensive in South Sudan then in nearby Somalia.

    This makes it increasingly difficult for aid agencies to reach the 100,000 people currently experiencing starvation. The UN estimates that 5 million more people (42% of the population) lack adequate access to food, and have no knowledge of when they will be able to eat, or where their next meal will come from.

    Despite the severity of the crisis in South Sudan, awareness and media coverage in the US and globally is incredibly low. Ashley McLaughlin, media and communications officer for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) South Sudan writes that “in America, in all of 2015, there was no mention of South Sudan in the weekly evening news shows.” It is not difficult to trace the lack of media attention to the lack of humanitarian aid. In fact, as of 2016 the UN reported that only 3% of it’s appeal for humanitarian aid to South Sudan had been met. What funding has been provided is largely reactionary, despite what Zlatko Gegic, country director for Oxfam South Sudan cites as the “need to shift from a short-term approach to a more sustainable and transformative one.” In short, it is impossible to address South Sudan’s starvation crisis without also dealing with the violence and displacement that prove major factors in its existence. While funding is desperately needed, it must be applied holistically. The Department for International Development, for instance, is moving toward a “multi-year” funding model that enables the aid agencies it funds to offer better long-term support to those without adequate access to food.

    This is a crisis that can no longer be ignored. In a world where one third of the food produced is never eaten, and around six billion pounds of fruits and vegetables go unharvested in the US alone, it is clear that we can do better.

EMMA BRUCE is an undergraduate student studying English and marketing at Emerson College in Boston. She has worked as a volunteer in Guatemala City and is passionate about travel and social justice. She plans to continue traveling wherever life may take her.