Yemen battles hunger, child malnutrition

Monday, 11 June 2012

By Nadia Mayen

Al Arabiya with Agencies

Millions of Yemenis are being left to starve due to lack of food and water since the change of government which has pushed the country's political turmoil towards a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

Nearly half the country’s population has been afflicted but it is the hundreds of thousands of children who face life-threatening levels of malnutrition and starvation.

At the Al-Sabeen Hospital For Motherhood, Childhood And Gynecology, a mother talks about her son's condition which has stabilized in recent days.

“Almost half a month ago, he was very ill, but now he just has difficulty breathing,” said Sabah Mohamed.

According to the head of the children’s department at the hospital, Dr. Riyadh Mansour, the situation is now reaching its breaking point.

 “Now we have an average one or two cases every day of severe malnutrition which we classify as severe malnutrition. Mild malnutrition is highly prevalent in Yemen and does not require hospitalization,” he said.

 “A case of severe malnutrition is like the one you just saw, of the one-and-a-half year old who weighs just 4.5 kilograms,” he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday called for a pause in fighting so that they could gain access to deliver humanitarian aid to the needy.

The ICRC said it was seeking access from all sides, including the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia, but had yet to secure it.

In related news, the Assistant Administrator for USAID’s Bureau Of Democracy, Conflict And Humanitarian Assistance, Nancy Lindborg, told a news conference that the biggest concern was Yemeni peoples’ access to healthcare and clean water.

 “We must ensure that the children of Yemen -- who right now don’t have the chance they deserve because they are malnourished and because they don't have access to water and to health -- we must ensure that they are part of this transition and that they are part of successful transition of Yemen,” she said.

The Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Atta Al-Manan Bakhit, echoed Lindborg’s concerns, suggesting the current crisis was worse than that in the Horn of Africa.

The hunger issue in Yemen is tied to the political crisis in the country that is currently undergoing a transition to democracy and fighting a war against insurgents in the south. Yemeni political leaders plan to meet prominent secessionists later this month in Cairo to prepare for a national dialogue scheduled for August.

It is hard to tell whether the country’s humanitarian crisis will figure in their discussions.

 “Many people do not know that the humanitarian situation in Yemen is more dangerous than that of Somalia in July 2011,” he said.

Gulf Arab states and the West have pledged more than $4 billion in aid to the impoverished state last month, of which $3.25 billion was provided by Saudi Arabia alone.

However, residents in Sana’a’s slums say they doubt they will see any of the money.

 “We are seven living in one room; in this place there are seven people. Where can we go with them? Where we will go with our daughters?” said one mother as she prepared a meal to feed seven members.

 “We are living, thank God, if we have food we eat, if we don't we have to be patient with ourselves, until God bestows upon us,” she added.

The spokesman in Yemen for UNICEF said the crisis could not be underestimated.

"There are approximately 10 million people in Yemen that lack access to food security. There is also nearly a million Yemeni children suffering from chronic malnutrition which will result in stunted growth and weight loss, as well as approximately 276,000 Yemeni children under the age of five suffering from acute malnutrition,” he said.

Yemen army battles al-Qaida, says 28 killed

By AHMED AL-HAJ - Associated Press

Monday, Jun. 11, 2012

SANAA, Yemen -- Yemeni soldiers backed by warplanes and artillery are slowly advancing toward al-Qaida strongholds in the south of the country, fighting ongoing battles with militants that left 28 dead on Monday, military officials and the Ministry of Defense said.

Meanwhile, a political crisis appeared to be looming in the capital Sanaa after tanks, ammunition and other weapons were reported to have been looted from a military base, apparently by loyalists of the country's former president.

Warehouses in a barracks belonging to the well-equipped Republican Guards were stripped bare and arms transferred to the home village of ousted leader Ali Abdullah Saleh and to another barracks, according to a member of a top military committee. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

Many Yemenis believe that Saleh, who was forced to leave office earlier this year, is maneuvering to remain a power behind the scenes, and that through his loyalists he still controls units that defy the orders of his successor, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

For weeks, Saleh's son Ahmed who commands the Republican Guard has resisted calls to turn command of the barracks over to a new commander appointed by Hadi. Ahmed Saleh instead appointed his relative Tarek Mohammed to head the unit.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis have taken to the streets over the past months demanding that Hadi speed up a purge of Saleh loyalists. A proposed U.N. Security Council resolution circulated last week threatens non-military sanctions against those trying to undermine Hadi's national unity government.

In the south, meanwhile, the Yemeni military carried on its offensive against the southern town of Jaar, held by al-Qaida since last year. Warplanes bombed areas to the north and the west of Jaar, leaving 16 al-Qaida militants dead, military officials said. They said that the army aims to take a hilltop factory overlooking the town.

A Defense Ministry statement said the army, supported by tribal gunmen, seized Monday the town of Ahwar which is close to the al-Qaida-held coastal town of Shaqra.

A total of 12 military troops were killed, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

List provokes strong response: monthly Saudi stipends for key Yemeni figures

June 10, 2012

National Yemen

BY NY Staff

In response a recently-published list of names of around 2,700 Yemeni sheikhs , military leaders and political figures who receive large monthly sums of money from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense, members of parliament called for a serious investigation into the matter. During Saturday’s parliament session, MPs wondered aloud how influential Yemeni political figures and sheikhs could possibly justify receiving large amounts of money from Saudi Arabia.

The list of names was accompanied by the sums of money the individuals and political parties reportedly receive on a monthly basis, and was published by Al-Sharie’a newspaper. The published report stated that all together, such payments total SR 56 million per month.

The list is topped by the name of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who reportedly received SR 40 million per month. SR 3 million has reportedly found its way to both Sheikh Sadeq Al-Ahmar and Major General Ali Mohsen on a monthly basis. In addition, the report claimed that Mohsen received an additional yearly payment of SR 10 million for leading forces against Yemeni Shi’ites.

According to the report, Hussien Al-Ahmar has SR 200,000 SR monthly and an additional five million Saudi riyals per year.

Reported payments aren’t limited to individual figures, but are also extend to political parties such as Al-Islah, which was reported to have received three million riyals on a monthly basis. In response, Islah representatives contested the report’s veracity, and added that party members were astonished to see that something so baseless had been published.

Meanwhile, Abdulrahman Al-Jafri, president of the Ray League political party, has reportedly been provided with SR 160,000 a month.

The list included former presidents such as Ali Nasser Mohammed, who has reportedly been paid SR 120,000 per month; according to the list, Haidar Al-Attas, Haitham Qassim Taher and Mohmmed Ali have each reportedly been paid SR 10,000 per month.

The names and sums on the list have elicited a great deal of response. Many Yemenis were shocked to see particular individuals on the list, such as the brother and son of late president Ibrahim Al-Hamdi.

The published list also included the names of a number of journalists, diplomats, officials from various parts of Yemen, thereby indicating a widescale dependency on foreign money on the part of a large portion of Yemen’s political leaders and those that surround them.

Meanwhile, the press office belonging to former president Saleh has refuted the published report, which lists him at the top of the list in terms of the amount of money received from Saudi Arabia on a monthly basis. A statement released by Saleh’s office reads “Neither he, his father nor his grandfather received any payments from the Saudi government, which indicates that Sheikh Al-Ahmar and his sons are the ones taking money from KSA.”

A further denial came from representatives of the family of late president Ibrahim Al-Hamdi. A recently-issued statement said that no members of the Al-Hamdi family had received any amount of money from any party. Abdul-Rahman Al-Hamdi said that what had been published amounted to lies and fabrications that “serve only a few people and which cannot mar the reputable history of the Al-Hamdi name.”

Interior Ministry warns of further Al-Qaeda attacks in Sana’a

By NY Staff

June 9, 2012

The Interior Ministry has reported that the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization has made plans to attack governmental and other vital institutions in Yemen. The ministry considered these plans to be desperate reactions to overwhelming defeats suffered in Abyan, when hundreds of militants were killed and many others injured during army campaigns against them.

In a press release, the ministry stated that it had directed security forces in different governorates to take all precautions and to respond seriously to possible security threats.

A security source who preferred to be unnamed stated that Yemeni security forces are on alert following the discovery of three Al-Qaeda plans outlining attacks against government institutions using car bombs.

 “Security forces are tracking four bomb cars were surely reported to be in Sana’a and were prepared to attack the defense complex, security forces center and other targets,” noted the source. According to the source, a group of Al-Qaeda militants felt they could escape from security forces around Bab Al-Yemen, which sits close to the defense complex.

In this regard, Taher Haidar reported that Yemeni security forces foiled a plot targeting Yahya Mohammed Saleh, President of the Central Security Forces, and Ahmed Ali Saleh during a campaign to plant trees at a number of schools in Sana’a last week.

Yemen clashes leave 11 dead

Yemen clashes leave 11 dead

June 9, 2012

Al-Qaeda militants have killed two soldiers in Yemen's Abyan province, prompting troops to shell jihadist positions and kill nine extremists, military and local sources said Saturday.

"Al-Qaeda militants opened machine gun fire on an army post on the western outskirts of Jaar," an Al-Qaeda stronghold the army has been trying to retake since last month, "killing two soldiers and wounding four others," a military official said.

Troops responded to the late Friday assault by shelling Al-Qaeda positions on Jaar outskirts killing "several militants," the official told AFP.

A source in Jaar confirmed the shelling saying "we have buried nine Al-Qaeda militants in the town's cemetery," adding that five other jihadists were also wounded.

Yemeni forces launched an all-out offensive on May 12 aimed at reclaiming towns and cities lost to Al-Qaeda during the past year, including Abyan's capital Zinjibar.

Since the beginning of the attack, 457 people have been killed, according to an AFP tally combined from different sources. This includes 342 Al-Qaeda militants, 70 soldiers, 26 local armed men, and 19 civilians.