More than 8,670 people – 60% of them civilians – have been killed and 49,960 injured in air strikes and fighting on the ground since the coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March 2015, according to the UN.
yemen
Yemen (/ˈjɛmən/ (
listen); Arabic: اليَمَن al-Yaman), officially known as the Republic of Yemen (الجمهورية اليمنيةal-Jumhūrīyah al-Yamanīyah), is an Arab country in Western Asia at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen is the second-largest country in the peninsula, occupying 527,970 km2 (203,850 sq mi). The coastline stretches for about 2,000 km (1,200 mi). It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to the south, and Oman to the east-northeast. Although Yemen’s constitutionally stated capital is the city of Sana’a, the city has been under rebel control since February 2015. Because of this, Yemen’s capital has been temporarily relocated to the port city of Aden, on the southern coast. Yemen’s territory includes more than 200 islands; the largest of these is Socotra.
Yemen was the home of the Sabaeans (biblical Sheba), a trading state that flourished for over a thousand years and also included parts of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. In 275 AD, the region came under the rule of the later Jewish-influenced Himyarite Kingdom. Christianity arrived in the fourth century, whereas Judaism and local paganism were already established. Islam spread quickly in the seventh century and Yemenite troops were crucial in the expansion of the early Islamic conquests. Administration of Yemen has long been notoriously difficult. Several dynasties emerged from the ninth to 16th centuries, the Rasulid dynasty being the strongest and most prosperous. The country was divided between the Ottoman and British empires in the early twentieth century. The ZaydiMutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was established after World War I in North Yemen before the creation of the Yemen Arab Republic in 1962. South Yemen remained a British protectorate known as the Aden Protectorate until 1967 when it became an independent state and later, a Marxist state. The two Yemeni states united to form the modern republic of Yemen in 1990.
Yemen is a developing country,and the poorest country in the Middle East. Under the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen was described as a kleptocracy. According to the 2009 international corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Yemen ranked 164 out of 182 countries surveyed. In the absence of strong state institutions, elite politics in Yemen constituted a de facto form of collaborative governance, where competing tribal, regional, religious, and political interests agreed to hold themselves in check through tacit acceptance of the balance it produced. The informal political settlement was held together by a power-sharing deal between three men: president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who controlled the state; Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who controlled the largest share of the Republic of Yemen Armed Forces; and Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar, figurehead of the Islamist Islah party and Saudi Arabia’s chosen broker of transnational patronage payments to various political players, including tribal sheikhs. The Saudi payments have been intended to facilitate the tribes’ autonomy from the Yemeni government and to give the Saudi government a mechanism with which to weigh in on Yemen’s political decision-making.
Yemen has been in a state of political crisis since 2011, starting with street protests against poverty, unemployment, corruption, and president Saleh’s plan to amend Yemen’s constitution and eliminate the presidential term limit, in effect making him president for life. President Saleh stepped down and the powers of the presidency were transferred to Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was formally elected president on 21 February 2012 in a one-man election. The transitional process was part of the UN-backed Gulf Cooperation Council Initiative known as National Dialogue Conference. In September 2014, the Houthis took over Sana’a with the help of the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, later declaring themselves in control of the country after a coup d’état. This resulted in a new civil war and a Saudi Arabian-led military intervention aimed at preventing the collapse of Hadi’s fledgling government.
The war has the blockade of food imports into the country, leading to a famine that is affecting 17 million people. The lack of clean water, caused by depleted aquifers and the destruction of the country’s water infrastructure, has also caused the world’s worst outbreak of cholera, with the number of suspected cases exceeding 200,000. Due to the war, famine, and cholera, the country has been called “Hell on Earth”
[..]
The U.S. launched a series of drone attacks in Yemen to curb a perceived growing terror threat due to political chaos in Yemen. Since December 2009, U.S. strikes in Yemen have been carried out by the U.S. military with intelligence support from the CIA. The drone strikes are protested by human-rights groups who say they kill innocent civilians and that the U.S. military and CIA drone strikes lack sufficient congressional oversight, including the choice of human targets suspected of being threats to America. Controversy over U.S. policy for drone attacks mushroomed after a September 2011 drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both U.S. citizens. Another drone strike in October 2011 killed Anwar’s teenaged son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki.
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first real intro/connect reading/watching Jeremy Scahill‘s dirty wars
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adding page this day
via daniel wickham rt
Rights Watch (UK) (@rightswatchuk) tweeted at 4:11 AM – 10 Jul 2017 :
PRESS RELEASE Court ruling on #Saudi arms gives #UK green light to prioritise financial gain over Yemeni lives https://t.co/OwPwYeJnGn (http://twitter.com/rightswatchuk/status/884354422679195649?s=17)
SavetheChildren News (@SaveUKNews) tweeted at 4:09 AM – 10 Jul 2017 :
Bombs are killing #Yemen’s children. Unbelievable decision from High Court today on UK arms sales https://t.co/UDxUe0VnBS #StopArmingSaudi https://t.co/KqiTXtPOS3 (http://twitter.com/SaveUKNews/status/884353754090418177?s=17)
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Marc Lynch (@abuaardvark) tweeted at 3:26 AM – 13 Jul 2017 :
UN envoy says the conflict in Yemen is intensifying daily, humanitarian devastation https://t.co/4Hwa6DArV6(http://twitter.com/abuaardvark/status/885430182429024256?s=17)
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OCHA Yemen (@OCHAYemen) tweeted at 3:42 AM – 12 Jul 2017 :
#Yemen: largest food crisis and worst cholera outbreak in the world, while funding stands at only 33.3%. More https://t.co/K4uavr2AmN. https://t.co/k7fephIbCH (http://twitter.com/OCHAYemen/status/885071839529238528?s=17)
Ali Omer (@aliomer1983) tweeted at 4:01 AM – 12 Jul 2017 :
@OCHAYemen @Ndawsari U r really gaining to much money from & profiteering from yemen Tragedy
Too much cry to much money, nothing on ground
Shame (http://twitter.com/aliomer1983/status/885076580095209476?s=17)
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Sarah Abdallah (@sahouraxo) tweeted at 2:55 PM – 17 Jul 2017 :
Woman walking in a miniskirt causes uproar in Saudi Arabia.
But Saudi Arabia bombing and starving millions of Yemenis for two years? Meh! https://t.co/3UqKq7JQOh(http://twitter.com/sahouraxo/status/887053263828389889?s=17)
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Caabu (@Caabu) tweeted at 5:11 AM – 4 Aug 2017 :
If #Yemen was 100 people – humanitarian situation is getting worse due to blockade more action must be taken to end this crisis v @WHOYemen https://t.co/BvCz0qz3VZ (http://twitter.com/Caabu/status/893429212148879360?s=17)
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Ayman Mohyeldin (@AymanM) tweeted at 4:00 PM on Thu, Aug 24, 2017:
‘A child under the age of 5 in #yemen dies every 10 minutes from preventable causes’ – where is the Int’l community? https://t.co/SkfgwdpsAA
(https://twitter.com/AymanM/status/900840206319796224?s=03)
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Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) tweeted at 5:03 AM – 3 Aug 2017 :
Our Conservative government is literally helping to cause the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen. https://t.co/VI6YTw4yWB (http://twitter.com/DanielWickham93/status/893064837588283395?s=17)
Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) tweeted at 5:05 AM – 3 Aug 2017 :
And no, this is not whataboutery. It’s calling out the hypocrisy of a govt which uses suffering in Venezuela to score points against Corbyn (http://twitter.com/DanielWickham93/status/893065365915398144?s=17)
Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) tweeted at 5:09 AM – 3 Aug 2017 :
while actively helping the vastly more repressive government of Saudi Arabia to bomb and starve the Arab world’s poorest country. (http://twitter.com/DanielWickham93/status/893066333616824320?s=17)
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Peter Joseph (@ZeitgeistFilm) tweeted at 10:08 PM on Thu, Nov 09, 2017:
“It will be the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims.”
https://t.co/fkJxwPcOsq
(https://twitter.com/ZeitgeistFilm/status/928851867408330752?s=03)
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UNICEF (@UNICEF) tweeted at 10:29 AM – 9 Nov 2017 :
#Yemen: A catastrophic situation is getting worse. 400k children at risk of severe acute malnutrition: https://t.co/WRcbMMG7Os
#ChildrenUnderAttack https://t.co/mXEHiQ2cVI (http://twitter.com/UNICEF/status/928675918616383488?s=17)
comment on above tweet about africa
donzy billions. (@chiprince12) tweeted at 3:45 PM – 9 Nov 2017 :
@UNICEF @UN @UNOCHA @UNReliefChief African children suffer like this all the time but the UN still encourages dictators and bad governance in Africa (http://twitter.com/chiprince12/status/928755345584984065?s=17)
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Dr. Gary Slutkin (@GSlutkin) tweeted at 9:11 PM on Wed, Nov 15, 2017:
Priority Human Problem:
Massive Child StarvationSimple Guide to Solution:
1. Stop bombing
2. Convince others to stop bombing
3. Bring food#Yemen #YemenFamine
https://t.co/bZEaguZYUG
(https://twitter.com/GSlutkin/status/931011839634354176?s=03)
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Democracy Now! (@democracynow) tweeted at 5:38 AM – 14 Dec 2017 :
Then—Journalist @ionacraig on latest updates from the devastating U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war in Yemen. Live 8-9AM ET: https://t.co/Xup8cdtnFB (http://twitter.com/democracynow/status/941286220805664769?s=17)
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TIME (@TIME) tweeted at 9:37 PM on Thu, Dec 21, 2017:
The world’s worst cholera outbreak has now infected 1 million people in Yemen https://t.co/2V7j7HRkuC
(https://twitter.com/TIME/status/944064359067799552?s=03)
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Noor Al Hussein (@QueenNoor) tweeted at 6:36 AM – 22 Dec 2017 :
BBC News – Starvation in Sanaa: 1,000 days of Yemen’s civil war https://t.co/hqxiBtqvD5 shame on all involved who are endangering entire region! (http://twitter.com/QueenNoor/status/944199912161529856?s=17)
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In Yemen, 1 Child dies EVERY 10 minutes.
From cholera, famine, Saudi aggression, and more. #HandsoffYemen https://t.co/yFfH8EMkil
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/KhaledBeydoun/status/946872763129532416
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Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) tweeted at 5:22 AM – 23 Apr 2018 :
In Yemen today, the Saudis bombed a wedding, killing at least 20 people, including the bride. They killed “mostly women and children.” The US & UK – who some believe do humanitarian interventions – both play vital roles in the Saudi destruction of Yemen https://t.co/496jXAigq7 (http://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/988377521833041920?s=17)
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GeorgeMonbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) tweeted at 6:04 AM – 23 Apr 2018 :
The massacres in #Yemen continue. Carried out by Saudi Arabia, which is armed and given diplomatic cover by the UK and US. Every day a new outrage: https://t.co/XsVgqfxBLC (http://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/988388143769497601?s=17)
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thread
Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) tweeted at 5:41 AM – 28 Jun 2018 :
There is no downplaying the UN’s role in whitewashing Saudi Arabia’s actions in Yemen https://t.co/i9VZtDQJsL https://t.co/6U1J10uwLK(http://twitter.com/joeyayoub/status/1012299958823813121?s=17)United Nations (@UN) tweeted at 5:43 AM – 28 Jun 2018 :
Yemen: After 3 years of conflict, more than 75% of the population need humanitarian assistance. @UNOCHA coordinates aid operations to help the most vulnerable: https://t.co/Z6wh0ndTNA https://t.co/6SABOzNmVi (http://twitter.com/UN/status/1012300440648679426?s=17)
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via helen walters rt
Orla Guerin (@OrlaGuerin) tweeted at 3:53 PM – 17 Jul 2018 :
Hi Catherine – Yemen is the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, and on a scale like nothing else I have ever seen. The Un says 8 million are threatened with starvation. Without a political solution by the end of the year, UN officials warn that could rise to 18 million. https://t.co/EIjAke4zbX (http://twitter.com/OrlaGuerin/status/1019339288125870081?s=17)Orla Guerin (@OrlaGuerin) tweeted at 3:51 PM – 17 Jul 2018 :
I think there is international appetite for a solution but no real mechanism being used to get it. Yemen is part of a complicated regional power struggle pitting the Sunni Muslim regional giant against its rival, Shia Iran. This complicates attempts at a solution https://t.co/M56HnIjsv4 (http://twitter.com/OrlaGuerin/status/1019338880691195905?s=17)
global systemic problem.. which today we can address.. let’s let go enough to go there.. deep enough..
ie: hlb via 2 convos that io dance.. as the day..[aka: not part\ial.. for (blank)’s sake…].. a nother way
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bus attack – filled w kids
David Graeber (@davidgraeber) tweeted at 3:40 PM on Thu, Aug 09, 2018:
Saudis (again) blow up children in terror attack backed by US, UK, and all European powers https://t.co/OqCAz2cIMl
(https://twitter.com/davidgraeber/status/1027671097641197569?s=03)Did you know that on this past Thursday a bomb from the United States was dropped on this bus of young schoolboys in Yemen?
It killed 40 boys. It blew them to unrecognizable bits.
Deadlier than any single attack on children in American history.
Absolutely devastating. https://t.co/JmCIiQ9hZ8
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1029404260226793473
“I saw the explosion, then my ears started ringing. I saw blood, then smoke. And once I saw my friends dying, I began crying…I don’t want to go anywhere near a bus. I hate buses, I hate school and I can’t sleep.” Mokhtar, 8-year-old survivor
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Joseph Willits (@josephwillits) tweeted at 5:29 AM – 10 Aug 2018 :
Hundreds of pregnant women at risk of death in Yemen. Maternal death rate likely to have doubled from its 2015 tally of 385 deaths per 100,000 live births https://t.co/53dFkHgJqD (http://twitter.com/josephwillits/status/1027879634745131009?s=17)
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Noor Al Hussein (@QueenNoor) tweeted at 5:16 AM – 16 Aug 2018 :
America Is Committing War Crimes and Doesn’t Even Know Why https://t.co/qRgpRAi7yI (http://twitter.com/QueenNoor/status/1030050549167734784?s=17)The United States has spent far more time obscuring its role in the Saudi-led war in Yemen than in explaining any rationale for it.
The United States has been directly engagedin the civil war since March 25, 2015, and its support has not prevented the killing of innocents. It is time to phase out and terminate America’s support for the Saudi-led component of this civil war, and, more importantly, never again go to war, or support other’s wars, without purpose or objectives.
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Kareem Chehayeb | كريم (@chehayebk) tweeted at 5:12 AM – 16 Aug 2018 :
But…the United States is NOT silent on #Yemen.
On the contrary, alongside the UK and France, continues to arm the #SaudiArabia-led coalition, despite piles of evidence of high civilian casualties and in some cases direct targeting of civilian objects.
https://t.co/HMxIKPB9Wq (http://twitter.com/chehayebk/status/1030049675276152833?s=17)
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Kareem Shaheen (@kshaheen) tweeted at 9:00 AM – 19 Aug 2018 :
“The unbearable weight, of the lightest bodies”, a devastating report by @OrlaGuerin: Yemen war: Boys dig friends’ graves after air strike https://t.co/aHgYNuP6zY (http://twitter.com/kshaheen/status/1031194115717910528?s=17)
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Bel Trew (@Beltrew) tweeted at 1:48 AM – 27 Aug 2018 :
More than 8 million people are on the verge of famine in Yemen, 500,000 of them are children fighting for their lives. In one former al-Qaeda stronghold, doctors and families speak out about battling hunger. Final piece from #Yemen series #Mukalla https://t.co/Xu6kEtwkc5 (http://twitter.com/Beltrew/status/1033984564530761728?s=17)
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Oz Katerji (@OzKaterji) tweeted at 4:11 AM – 5 Sep 2018 :
It’s hard to tell whether Obama’s worst legacy is Syria or Yemen to be fair. Obama played an active role in the destruction of Yemen, whereas his decision to outsource the conflict in Syria to Russia & Iran led to the disintegration of international law
https://t.co/5jGA6lFHJz (http://twitter.com/OzKaterji/status/1037282181142462464?s=17
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Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) tweeted at 9:42 AM – 27 Sep 2018 :
These are kids starving in Yemen because of US and UK support for Saudi & UAE war crimes there. We are complicit in this starvation. Yes, we’re all focused on Kavanaugh, but please spare some bandwidth for these kids. My column: https://t.co/oMvf0NmaAZhttps://t.co/Jklhmonx1n (http://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/1045337917550481408?s=17)
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Iona Craig أيونا كريچ (@ionacraig) tweeted at 4:17 PM – 1 Nov 2018 :
While we’re all finally on the subject of Yemen and as I wait to do my fourth interview of the day, here’s a thread on what life is like for Yemenis trying to access health care. 1 (http://twitter.com/ionacraig/status/1058120906277638144?s=17)
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Daniel Wickham (@DanielWickham93) tweeted at 6:46 AM – 10 Nov 2018 :
70-80,000 people have likely been killed in the war in Yemen, according to research by @ACLEDINFO (this doesn’t include deaths from the humanitarian crisis, although Save the Children have estimated that 50,000 children may have died from hunger last year) https://t.co/TFqZ87zdty (http://twitter.com/DanielWickham93/status/1061253851045617664?s=17)
reply tweet – 500 000 in syria
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85 000 children in past 3 years died of starvation
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/yemen-85000-children-died-starvation-181121041742347.html
Using data compiled by the United Nations, Save the Children evaluated mortality rates for untreated cases of severe acute malnutrition in children under five-years old.
The humanitarian agency found some 84,701 children may have starved to death between April 2015 and October 2018 because of a lack of food.
“We are horrified that some 85,000 children in Yemen may have died because of extreme hunger since the war began,” said Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s director in Yemen, in a statement.
“Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop… Parents are having to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it.”
The World Food Programme says up to 14 million Yemenis are now at risk of starvation as fighting rages in Hodeidah.
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Iona Craig أيونا كريچ (@ionacraig) tweeted at 6:19 AM – 21 Nov 2018 :
More than 1.3 million children have suffered from sever acute malnutrition in Yemen since March 2015. https://t.co/9KZx86XkeF(http://twitter.com/ionacraig/status/1065233283548614656?s=17)
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CNN (@CNN) tweeted at 5:39 AM – 14 Dec 2018 :
The US military is seeking a $331M reimbursement from Saudi Arabia & United Arab Emirates after discovering it failed to properly charge the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen for aerial refueling services due to an “accounting error,” the Pentagon said https://t.co/Jbxtixcc03 (http://twitter.com/CNN/status/1073558086638538752?s=17)
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via oz rt
Sudarsan Raghavan (@raghavanWaPo) tweeted at 2:16 AM – 28 Dec 2018 :
As a journalist, I have visited Yemen 16 times, reporting the story in my usual detached way. But on my last trip I met 3 yr old Abdo Saleh, a jumble of bones dying of hunger. The parent in me took over and so did the emotions. This is his story. https://t.co/H9OLbfQAZh(http://twitter.com/raghavanWaPo/status/1078580368578670592?s=17)
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Sudarsan Raghavan (@raghavanWaPo) tweeted at 11:46 PM – 18 Jun 2019 :
More than 91K people have died in Yemen’s 4.5 year-long war, says new report from @ACLEDinfo. Last year was the deadliest and most violent year on record. #Yemencantwait #Yemenwar (http://twitter.com/raghavanWaPo/status/1141220604923850754?s=17)
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Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) tweeted at 3:26 AM – 20 Jun 2019 :
This is such an incredible victory. The utter disgrace of the British government arming a mass murdering dictatorship – which has plunged Yemen into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and used our weapons to slaughter children – has been stopped. Well done to those won it https://t.co/mqSvuOze8k (http://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1141638436119617537?s=17)
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Iona Craig أيونا كريچ (@ionacraig) tweeted at 4:34 AM – 1 Mar 2020 :
The Eastern Route (Horn of Africa to Yemen) is “the busiest maritime migration route on earth”. In 2019, 92% were Ethiopians and 90% intended to continue to Saudi Arabia – whose agrarian policies in Ethiopia have fueled the migration in the first place. https://t.co/DiUzbVyMCF (http://twitter.com/ionacraig/status/1234079452180701184?s=17)
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Approx 300,000 people in #Yemen have lost their homes, crops, livestock and personal belongings in the last 3 months due to torrential rains and severe flash floods.
Amongst them are people who were previously forced to flee their homes by the conflict
https://t.co/GoGh8GyDNi
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/BathoulAhmed/status/1297813013337182210
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“He grabbed me by the hair and poured the acid on me while laughing”.
This is a horrific story of Al-Anoud Hussain Sheryan in Yemen, now 19, but was married at 12, lived as a slave, rejected at 16, & then disfigured by her ex-husband in an acid attack.
https://t.co/VWgyrFOOCS https://t.co/acczcAG2lQ
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/josephwillits/status/1357337780855078916Child marriage is a feature of Yemeni society but six years of war, which has left the country on the brink of famine, has made it more common and “greatly increased” violence against women, said Tayseer Walid of the Yemeni Women’s Union in Sanaa
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be you. 