In writing for Voices for Creative Nonviolence, founder Kathy Kelly cites grim statistics of how the war in Yemen has affected its people, and most alarmingly its children.
Kelly wrote her latest opinion piece, “Hunting in Yemen,” for the website, Common Dreams. In it she tells of the disastrous results of a 2017 raid by Navy Seals in a rural Yemeni town that killed 15 civilians, all children.
“Now, in the seventh year of grotesque war, international diplomatic efforts should heed the young Yemeni-Americans fasting in Washington, DC,” Kelly writes. “We all have a responsibility to listen for the screams of children gunned down from behind as they flee in the darkness from the rubble of their homes. We all have a responsibility to listen for the gasps of little children breathing their last because starvation causes them to die from asphyxiation.
“The U.S. is complying with a coalition using starvation and disease to wage war. With 400,000 children’s lives in the balance, with a Yemeni child dying once every 75 seconds, what U.S. interests could possibly justify our further hesitation in insisting the blockade must be lifted? The war must end. The U.N. Security Council must draft a new resolution — using the facts on the ground — that places the survival of Yemeni children who are being starved as the number one priority.”
Read Kelly’s full statement, here.