Page 8 The Skanner June 28, 2017 News From Destruction to Cholera, Yemen War Brings Disasters Fighting continues at a stalemate, while civilians face disease and massive food insecurity legations and says all se- curity forces are under Hadi’s authority. The Emirati role re- flects how the Yemen conflict has been region- alized from the start. With U.S. backing, Saudi Arabia launched its coalition, contend- ing that Iran was behind the rebels, known as Houthis, who overran the north and the capital, Sanaa. The coalition’s air bombardment averted the complete fall of the government of Presi- dent Abed Rabbo Hadi Mansour and prevented the Houthis from taking over the south. But now both sides are locked in. The north re- mains in the hands of the Houthis backed by army units loyal to Hadi’s pre- decessor, former Presi- dent Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was removed by a 2011 uprising. The south is ostensibly under the authority of Hadi, but he spends most of his time in exile in the Saudi cap- ital, Riyadh. Here is a look at the multiple levels on which the war has devastated the country of 26 mil- lion, which even before the conflict was the Arab world’s poorest nation. HUMANITARIAN DISASTER In May, a senior U.N. humanitarian official declared that Yemen was site of “the world’s larg- est food security crisis.” More than 17 million des- perately need food, and nearly 7 million of those are “one step away from famine.” Last week came the newest horrible super- lative. The World Health Organization said Yemen faced “the worst cholera outbreak in the world.” More than 1,400 people, a quarter of them chil- dren, have died of chol- era the past two months. Those nightmares come on top of other in- tertwined effects of the war. More than 3 million people have been driven from their homes. More than 10,000 people have killed. There are major fuel shortages caused by a coalition blockade. Health services have col- lapsed. Some 1 million Information is powerful. The power is in your hands. NEWS www.TheSkanner.com TheSkannerNews @TheSkannerNews AP PHOTO/HANI MOHAMMED, FILE By MAGGIE MICHAEL Associated Press CAIRO — More than two years of civil war have led to continually compounding disasters in Yemen. Fighting rages on in a deadly stalemate. The economy has been bombed into ruins. Hun- ger is widespread, and a new misery has been added: the world’s big- gest current outbreak of cholera, with more than 200,000 cases. The south, meanwhile, has seen the growing power of the United Arab Emirates, which is part of a coalition meant to pro- tect the internationally recognized government in the war with Shiite rebels while also fight- ing al-Qaida. But at the same time, the UAE has set up its own security forces, running virtually a state-within-a-state and fueling the south’s inde- pendence movement. An AP investigation last week documented 18 secret prisons run by the UAE or its allies, where former prisoners said torture was widespread. The UAE denied the al- In this April, 13, 2017 file photo, Yemenis present documents in order to receive food rations provided by a local charity, in Sanaa, Yemen. More than two years of civil war have led to continually compounding disasters in Yemen. Fighting rages on in a deadly stalemate, the economy has been bombed into ruins, hunger is widespread, and a new misery has been added: Cholera, the world’s biggest current outbreak with more than 200,000 cases. civil servants have not been paid for months, including 30,000 health workers. The cholera outbreak spread with startling speed after two months of heavy rains in the north, exacerbated by the pile-up of garbage in streets — trash collectors are among those who have gone unpaid — and the lack of access to clean water for millions of people. Around 5,000 new cholera cases are report- ed daily. Aid officials fear it could pass a quarter million people by Sep- tember. The U.N. is send- ing one million doses of vaccines, the largest since Haiti’s outbreak in 2010. Dealing with cholera is pulling away resources and food meant to go to battling famine, warned the U.N. humanitarian chief in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick. Yemen long struggled with malnutrition. But the coalition embargo and the fighting have wrecked distribution systems and tipped the country into near fam- ine. A child under the age of five dies every 10 min- utes of preventable caus- es, and 2.2 million ba- bies, boys and girls, are acutely malnourished with almost half a mil- lion children suffering from severe acute mal- nutrition, a 63 percent increase since late 2015, according to Stephen O’Brien of the Office of Coordination of Human- itarian Assistance. DEVASTATED NORTH Coalition warplanes have pounded the north relentlessly, hitting mil- itary camps, weapons storehouses and armed compounds. But they have also hit hospitals, schools, out- door markets and resi- dential areas to a degree that rights groups have said may amount to a war crime. One of the deadli- est strikes, in October, his a Sanaa funeral hall, killing and wounding hundreds. The U.S. has backed the coalition with intelligence, satellite imagery and billions of dollars in weapons sales. This year, American drone strikes targeting al-Qaida have mounted dramatically. The main battle zones are along the western coastline, on the moun- tainous outskirts of Sa- naa and around the city of Taiz. But front lines have not moved signifi- cantly in months. Multi- ple peace initiatives have fallen apart. Meanwhile, the Houth- is have clamped down against dissent. The op- position says they hold thousands of political prisoners in secret pris- ons, including in private houses. Detainees are often accused or sup- porting the coalition or belonging to Sunni extremist groups. Jour- nalists have been arrest- ed, tortured, and forced to flee to the south or abroad.