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Scores of Yemenis Killed in the Continuously Senseless War, Cholera Outbereak Worsening as 13 Died in Lahij Province

April 14, 2019 

Yemeni children on the rubble of their destroyed house, April 13, 2019	A Yemeni cholera patient, April 14, 2019

 

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The following news stories are from the Yemeni independent website Al-Masdar ( http://www.almasdaronline.com/category/42  ):

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Medical Source: 13 deaths, and 52 infections of cholera in Lahj and no deaths with dengue fever

April 14, 2019, ALMASDARONLINE ١٤ أبريل ٢٠١٩

Dr. Shallal Hasil , the coordinator of the early Warning Program of the Ministry of Public Health and population in the southern province of Lahij, told Al-Masdar online that 13 people have died of cholera epidemics in the province since they began to spread about a month and a half ago.

The number of confirmed cases of cholera has reached 52 cases in Lahj province, while dengue fever has not yet caused any deaths, he said, with no mention of the number of dengue infections in the neighbouring province of Aden.

However, a medical source at the public Health and Population office in Lahaj told Al-Masdar online that the office will provide a complete final statistic on the number of cases of cholera and dengue epidemics in the province in the coming days.

Dr. Shallal Hasil told "Al-Masdar online" that they are in the early warning program investigate and write down the affected cases directly to the decision-makers at the provincial Health Bureau and the Ministry of Health's office in the interim capital Aden.

He added that they supervise the rapid response team in all directorates of the province, which is also doing its part in the process of handling cases and the work of chlorination of drinking water, in addition to the widespread dissemination of health education and awareness, especially in rural areas.

He said they took samples of the infected cases and sent them to the central laboratory in the city of Aden.

Al-Hadd district in Yafe’a Directorate Centre recorded 7 cases of cholera deaths, two cases of the epidemic died in the Musaimeer district, while three cases of death in Ruba’eyat Radfan,Tebn and Al-Qubaitah one for each district.

Some of 1312 cases infected with acute diarrhoea in the first three months of this year have been indicative of the high incidence of the epidemic, which has recently spread to the province.

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The following news stories are from the pro-Houthi website Yemen Extra (http://www.yemenextra.net/):

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US-Saudi Aggression’s Daily Update for Friday, April 12th, 2019

On Apr 13, 2019, Yemen Extra, M. A.

The Saudi-led coalition continued, on Friday, to launch raids in several governorates, killing a number of civilians and damaging private and public properties.

In Hodeidah, a child was critically injured with a shell of the US-Saudi mercenaries in Attohayta district. US-Saudi mercenaries targeted with machine gun and artillery shells several areas of July-7 residential area. US-Saudi mercenaries targeted with 12 artillery shells Al-Faza area in Attohayta district and targeted with 45 shells Kilo 16.

In Dhammar, two children were killed and two others were injured with a cluster bomb of the US-Saudi remnants in Anes. In Al-Dhale’e, two civilians were killed with a shell of the US-Saudi mercenaries in Al-Naderah. In Sana’a, US-Saudi aggression launched a raid on Bani-Matar district.

In Sa’ada, Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted populated villages in Munabbih border district, damaging civilians’ houses and properties.

Amid Saudi war crimes, Yemenis will not remain silent

On Apr 10, 2019, YemenExtra, Y. A.

After more than a dozen civilians, most of them schoolchildren, were killed in a round of airstrikes by Saudi-led coalition, backed by the US, on residential areas in Yemen which provoked widely spread outrage, Yemeni army forces decided to voice anger in the battlefronts.

Over a dozen the coalition-sponsored paid fighters were killed ,on April 9,when Yemeni army forces launched separate offensives against their positions in the kingdom’s border region of Asir.

An unnamed Yemeni military source told YemenExta that Yemeni army forces fired a domestically-manufactured Zelzal-1 (Earthquake-1) ballistic missile at a gathering of the coalition’s paid fighters outside al-Rabu’ah town of the region on Tuesday evening, leaving several of them dead and injured.

Earlier in the day, Yemeni army forces had staged an ambush against  the paid fighters in the al-Alab border crossing of the same Saudi region, killing 15 of them in the process.

Separately, a number of the paid fighters were killed and injured when Yemeni army forces carried out an offensive in Yemen’s northern province of al-Jawf.

On April 7, Youssef al-Hazzari, a spokesman for the Yemeni Ministry of Public Health and Population, said at least 13 people lost their lives and 92 others sustained injuries after the coalition warplanes launched aerial assaults against an area in the Sa’wan district of Sana’a on Sunday evening. He said most of the victims were schoolchildren.

US Senator Bernie Sanders has condemned the heinous massacre committed by the coalition in the northeastern district in capital Sanaa, which killed 13 people, mostly female students.

“Another horrific attack in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. More children dead,” Sanders tweeted

The Ansarullah Media center has, for its part, published photos showing the destruction aftermath in the plastic factory,  wrought by the coalition air strike at dawn on Wednesday in the eastern part of Al-Thawra Sports city in the capital Sanaa.

The attacks coincided with the preparations of the people of the capital Sana’a for the funeral of the martyrs of the massacre committed by the coalition, last Tuesday, in Sa’wan neighborhood. The aerial assaults killed at least 13 people, mostly schoolchildren, and injured 92 others.

Saudi military reinforcements on Wednesday arrived at the Seiyun town of Yemen southern province of Hadramout.The reinforcements included 200 Saudi Royal Guard soldiers with dozens of military vehicles.The move came to quell demonstrations that broke out in town against Saudi military presence.

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Abdulaziz al-Kumim on Wednesday said that more than 53 percent of Yemen’s population is facing acute and severe food insecurity, which requires urgent intervention to meet food needs.

The spokesman of the Yemeni army forces, Brigadier Yahya Sare’e, said on Tuesday that the coalition and its paid fighters continue their intensive violations in Hodeidah, committing 1221 violations during the last week. In a statement to Saba News agency, he said that “the US-Saudi mercenaries targeted by 416 artillery shells, 16 missiles, 415 bombs and 262 movement operations, farms and Yemeni Army’ sites in several districts.” He explained that the fighter jets and reconnaissance continued to fly intensely over Hodiedah city and other districts.

Pope Francis says arms sales by the United States and Europe are to blame for the deaths of people, including children, in such places as Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan.

“The rich Europe and America sell weapons… used to kill children and kill people,” said the pontiff, in unprecedented remarks made while addressing students and teachers at Milan’s San Carlo Institute on Saturday, the Associated Press reported.

He said violence-scarred countries like Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan would not be witnessing wars if it was not for the arms.

While data collected by arms trade watchdog Security Assistance Monitor (SAM) shows the US has struck at least $68.2 billion worth of deals with the two countries since they started their war in Yemen.

In March 2015, the US -backed –Saudi-led coalition started  a war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over 600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and  prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.

Despite the coalition claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

However, Saudi Arabia relies heavily on the US in its brutal war on Yemen. Washington has deployed a commando force on the Arab kingdom’s border with Yemen to help destroy arms belonging to Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement. Washington has also provided logistical support and aerial refueling.

Yemen's Worsening Cholera Outbreak

Last updated Apr 7, 2019

YemenExtra, SH.A.

By DANIEL LARISON

Yemen’s new outbreak of cholera continues to spread rapidly:

“The numbers of people who come to our hospital for cholera complications are just unimaginable,” said Abdel-Moghni, a relative of the doctor who died. “Every day there is death, and the day that passes without deaths is an exceptional day.”

Almost 300 people have already died this year, and unfortunately that numbers seems certain to keep rising. Most Yemenis don’t have access to clean water, and malnutrition is widespread. Damage to treatment plants and lack of fuel for water pumps make what little clean water there is very expensive. The current outbreak is severe, and the U.N. says the disease is spreading like “wild-fire.” According to the doctors responsible for treating the disease, this year’s outbreak is worse than in 2017:

The rates last month are comparable to the first weeks of 2017, when cases jumped to 10,000 and 20,000 a week. It accelerated to 50,000 a week at its height and went on to infect more than 1 million people before waning in mid-2018.

“The outbreak this year is much worse and the situation is very dangerous,” said Adel al-Alamni, head of the cholera treatment center at al-Sabeen.

Like the rest of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, the latest outbreak of cholera is the result of the destruction and upheaval caused by the war. All parties share responsibility for the deteriorating situation, but Saudi coalition bombing and policies have contributed significantly to creating the conditions for the quick spread of the disease:

Health services and trash collection have further broken down because about 1 million government employees have largely gone unpaid since the Central Bank was moved in 2016 from Houthi-controlled Sanaa to the southern city of Aden. Nearly half the prewar health facilities are no longer working, often because they were damaged by airstrikes.

The recent death of one of the doctors working at al-Sabaeen hospital in Yemen, reported first by Reuters, illustrates how the disease can spread in a population that hasn’t been vaccinated:

Health workers dealing with cholera patients have not received vaccinations, al-Mansouri said, noting doctors are left without protection. Infection control in health facilities is almost nonexistent because of the lack of resources, making staff vulnerable, he said.

Hardly anyone in Yemen has been vaccinated against cholera. U.N. officials have said agencies largely have been unable to bring in vaccines because of the difficulty in delivering them amid the conflict. The only vaccination campaign so far took place in a few districts in 2018 and covered 400,000 people.

The potential is great for a new and even larger cholera epidemic than in 2017, and it is one more reason why Yemen desperately needs a halt to the fighting and a massive humanitarian relief effort.

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