Congress concerned about US military involvement in Yemen

[Peter1469]

Congress concerned about US military involvement in Yemen (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/05/02/alarm-grows-in-washington-as-saudi-coalition-attack-on-yemen-port-appears-imminent/?utm_term=.cc4bbf7dff2e)

It looks like the US military may help the Saudis attack another Yemeni port. Some members of Congress ask where the authority to do this comes from? I bet John McCain isn't one of them.


A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers urged Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday to reconsider his support for a seemingly imminent assault by a Saudi-led coalition on the crucial Yemeni port city of Hodeida.

“In the face of Yemen’s senseless humanitarian tragedy, where 19 million people need emergency support, we are committed to using our Constitutional authority to assert greater oversight over U.S. involvement in the conflict and promote greater public debate regarding U.S. military participation in Yemen’s civil war, which has never been authorized by Congress,” the legislators said in a letter.


The letter comes on the heels of another (http://pocan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/bipartisan-effort-55-us-representatives-call-on-trump-to-come-to), signed by 55 legislators, to President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions insisting that any direct U.S. involvement in Yemen be brought before Congress for authorization. In a trip to Saudi Arabia in April, Mattis hinted at direct U.S. military and intelligence support for the Saudi-led coalition, which is seeking to dislodge the Shiite-led Houthi rebels from Sanaa and other areas they control in Yemen.


Saudi fighter jets dropped leaflets over Houthi-controlled Hodeida in recent days warning its hundreds of thousands of residents of an impending offensive, according to the United Nations and aid agencies. Yemen imports 90 percent of its food, and Hodeida's already-damaged port is the entry point for the vast majority of it. A two-year-long civil war has destroyed Yemen's economy, and more than 7 million people rely on humanitarian aid for survival.

[waltky]

Cholera outbreak in Yemen...
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Cholera outbreak in war-ravaged Yemen kills 115
Tuesday 16th May, 2017 - A cholera outbreak in Yemen has killed 115 people over the past two weeks, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the country says.


Jamie McGoldrick told reporters that another 8,600 people were believed to have been infected, and that medicine was arriving.

But he also urged donor countries to fulfil more than one billion US dollars (£774 million) in aid pledges made in Geneva last month.


http://cdn-03.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article35716449.ece/9df84/AUTOCROP/w620h342/PANews%20BT_P-f43d6478-41f9-4c66-bd8e-2ded711a29e3_I1.jpg
A cholera outbreak in Yemen has killed 115 people over the past two weeks, the UN says.

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015, in a war that has killed more than 10,000 civilians.

The World Health Organisation said last month that fewer than 45% of health facilities in Yemen are now fully functioning, and that the flow of "essential medicines" has fallen by nearly 70%.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/cholera-outbreak-in-warravaged-yemen-kills-115-35716450.html

[waltky]

Cholera has killed 746 in war-torn Yemen...
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Yemen official: Cholera has killed 746 in war-torn country
Friday 9th June, 2017 -- A cholera outbreak in Yemen has claimed almost 800 lives and is suspected of sickening about 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organization and a Yemeni health official.


Nasser al-Argaly, health undersecretary in the rebel-run government in Sanaa, said Thursday that more than 96,000 people had been infected and at least 746 had died since late April. He blamed the outbreak on the two-year-old Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels. The fighting has damaged infrastructure and caused shortages of medicine.

The WHO said the number of suspected cholera cases had risen to 101,820 with 791 deaths as of June 7. In a joint statement with UNICEF, it said that children under the age of 15 account for 46 percent of the cases. "The cholera outbreak is making a bad situation for children drastically worse. Many of the children who have died from the disease were also acutely malnourished," said Dr. Meritxell Relano, UNICEF's Representative in Yemen.

Yemeni medical officials said an aid flight from the United Arab Emirates carrying 50 tons of cholera treatments arrived in the southern city of Aden, which is controlled by government forces. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media. The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_YEMEN_CHOLERA?SITE=KTVB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

See also:

May 30,`17 -- The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Tuesday that civil war is causing Yemen to spiral toward total collapse with the threat of famine increasing and over 55,000 suspected cholera cases since late April.


Stephen O'Brien told the U.N. Security Council that "Yemen now has the ignominy of being the world's largest food security crisis." More than 17 million people desperately need food, including 6.8 million who are "one step away from famine," he said. "The people of Yemen are being subjected to deprivation, disease and death as the world watches," O'Brien warned. He said the country's "spiral downwards towards a total social, economic and institutional collapse" is a direct consequence of actions by fighters loyal to the former president and Shiite Houthi rebels and their supporters. But it "is also, sadly, a result of inaction - whether due to inability or indifference - by the international community," he said.

O'Brien called for urgent action "to stem the suffering" in the Arab world's poorest nation, stressing that if there was no conflict "there would be no descent into famine, misery, disease and death." But the U.N. envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, told the council that serious negotiations on the first steps to a cessation of hostilities have been slow and the key parties are reluctant to even discuss the concessions needed for peace. "I will not hide from this council that we are not close to a comprehensive agreement," he said. Yemen, which is on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has been engulfed in civil war since September 2014 when Houthi rebels swept into the capital of Sanaa and overthrew President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi's internationally recognized government.


http://hosted.ap.org/photos/A/a48452cc95f54044852f2e27b876849c_0-big.jpg
People are treated for suspected cholera infection at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. humanitarian chief in Yemen, told The Associated Press on Tuesday, May 30, 2017, that treatable diseases like cholera could ravage Yemen this year without an increase in aid and an end to the two-year-old civil war.

In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States, began a campaign against Houthi forces allied with ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh in support of Hadi's government. Since then, the Iranian-backed Houthis have been dislodged from most of the south, but remain in control of Sanaa and much of the north. Cheikh Ahmed said violence is continuing on numerous fronts, much of it focused on the western coastline where pro-government forces are attempting to make progress toward the port of Hodeida and inland toward the city of Taiz. Violence is also continuing in the border area between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, he said. He urged the Security Council "to strongly convey to the parties that they need to engage immediately with the United Nations to agree on steps to avoid further bloodshed, to halt the slide towards famine and to recommit to a peaceful end to the war."

A group of 22 international and Yemeni humanitarian and human rights organizations - including Save The Children, Oxfam and the International Rescue Committee - also called on the Security Council to end its year-long inaction on Yemen and take action to bring about an immediate cease-fire and end the country's humanitarian crisis which is now "the largest in the world." Cheikh Ahmed and O'Brien stressed that the conflict now threatens access to the port of Hodeida on the Red Sea, a lifeline for most of Yemen's population. Cheikh Ahmed said that during his recent visit to the region he made clear to both parties that the spread of fighting to Hodeida would threaten the flow of desperately needed food and medical supplies and lead to "a devastating loss of civilian life and infrastructure."

In addition, over 1 million civil servants haven't been paid for months, which O'Brien said is affecting more than 8 million people and pushing more and more families toward poverty and starvation. Cheikh Ahmed said he has proposed a compromise which would allow the continued flow of commercial and humanitarian supplies through Hodeida "and ensure the end of any diversion of customs revenues and taxes so that they can be used to support salaries and services rather than the war or personal benefit." Under his proposed agreement, Cheikh Ahmed said, parallel negotiations would take place on avoiding military clashes in Hodeida and resuming salary payments nationally to all civil servants. "Yet even serious negotiations of these first steps have been slow to start," he said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_UNITED_NATIONS_YEMEN?SITE=KTVB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-05-30-14-55-44

[waltky]

Yemen now has world's largest outbreak of cholera...
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Yemen Struggling With Cholera Outbreak, Currently World's Largest
June 20, 2017 — The World Health Organization (WHO) reports the cholera outbreak in Yemen has spread to practically every part of the war-torn country. Suspected cases of cholera and acute watery diarrhea now top 170,000, with 1,170 deaths.


WHO reports cholera has spread to 20 of Yemen’s 22 governorates in just two months. Spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says aid agencies are scaling up their operation and refining their response. He says it is not possible to cover the country at all times, so WHO and the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) workers are going to so-called hotspots - the most affected areas - to treat cholera victims who are most at risk. He calls the situation a very challenging one. “If you look at the numbers, we are talking close to 2,000 suspected cases a day. Cholera is endemic in Yemen. It is currently the largest cholera outbreak that we have in the world,” Jasarevic said.


https://gdb.voanews.com/13704C9B-9ADC-474E-B3D7-5C080271BE38_w650_r0_s.jpg
A man is treated for a suspected cholera infection at a hospital in Sana'a, Yemen

Cholera can be easily treated by replacing lost fluids right away. But patients can die within hours if the disease is left untreated. Jasarevic says cholera is being transmitted through contaminated water so it is critical to provide people with a clean water supply. “It is difficult in a situation where a country has a health system that is collapsing. There is simply no money in the budget and health facilities are not having money to run their daily operations. There is also the issue of waste collection that obviously affects the quality of water and access to clean water,” he said.

Jasarevic says the WHO and UNICEF are providing water purification tablets and are chlorinating water in an effort to keep contaminated water sources at a minimum. He says both agencies also are providing money to health workers as an incentive to have them treat cholera patients. He notes health workers have not received a salary in six months.

https://www.voanews.com/a/yemen-cholera-outbreak/3908018.html

[waltky]

About 30,000 health workers have not been paid for more than 10 months...
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Cholera Outbreak Reaches 300,000 People Infected in Yemen
July 10, 2017 - A cholera outbreak in Yemen "continues to spiral out of control," according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which says there are now over 300,000 suspected cases of the water-borne disease.


The country is also struggling to battle famine in the midst of a two-year war between a Saudi-led coalition and Shiite rebels who control the capital city of Sana'a. The World Food Program has reported that two-thirds of Yemen's population does not know where their next meal will come from. "Disturbing. We're at 300k+ suspected cases with ~7k new cases/day," ICRC Regional Director Robert Mardini said in a tweet. "More than 1,600 have died," the ICRC tweeted.



https://gdb.voanews.com/EA777C90-3EB7-452D-A1DD-EAC386EC2B21_cx0_cy10_cw0_w1023_r1_s.jpg
A girl is treated for suspected cholera infection at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen



Cholera is a highly contagious bacterial infection that can be spread through contaminated food and water. The disease thrives in impoverished areas like Yemen. Although easily treatable, the disease is spreading in war-torn Yemen as less than half of all medical facilities have become useless.


According to the U.N'.s Humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, most of the $1.1 billion in aid promised to Yemen has not been delivered yet, causing food security to become even more of a problem. "Humanitarian Organizations have had to reprogram their resources away from malnutrition and reuse them to control the cholera outbreak," he said in Sana'a last week. "We're trying to do our best, but its very much beyond what we can cope with."


https://www.voanews.com/a/cholera-outbreak-reaches-300000-people-infected-in-yemen/3935879.html


See also:



Yemen cholera cases pass 300,000 mark, ICRC says
Tue, Jul 11, 2017 - ECONOMIC CRISIS: About 30,000 health workers have not been paid for more than 10 months, leading the UN to offer ‘incentive’ pay to get them involved in the fight


A 10-week cholera epidemic has now infected more than 300,000 people in Yemen, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday, a health disaster on top of war, economic collapse and near-famine in the impoverished nation. “Disturbing. We’re at 300k+ suspected cases with ~7k new cases/day,” ICRC regional director Robert Mardini said on Twitter. The WHO said there were 297,438 suspected cases and 1,706 deaths by Friday, but it did not publish a daily update on Sunday, when the 300,000 mark looked set to be reached.


A WHO spokesman said the figures were still being analyzed by the Yemen Ministry of Public Health. Although the daily growth rate in the overall number of cases has halved to just more than 2 percent in recent weeks and the spread of the disease has slowed in the worst-hit regions, outbreaks in other areas have grown rapidly. The hardest-hit areas have been in the nation’s west, which have been fiercely contested in the two-year war between a Saudi-led coalition and armed Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. The war has been a breeding ground for the disease, which spreads by feces contaminating food or water and thrives in places with poor sanitation.


Over the past week, a few cases have appeared in the city of Sayun and Mukalla Port in the Hadramawt region in the east. Yemen’s economic collapse means that 30,000 health workers have not been paid for more than 10 months, so the UN has stepped in with “incentive” payments to get them involved in an emergency campaign to fight the disease. The WHO has said its response, based on a network of rehydration points and the remnants of Yemen’s shattered health system, has succeeded in catching the disease early and keeping the death rate from the disease low at 0.6 percent of cases.


The spread of the disease is also being limited by herd immunity — the natural protection afforded by a large proportion of the population contracting and then surviving the disease. It is not yet clear how people could be affected. Early in the outbreak, the WHO said there could be 300,000 cases within six months, but on June 27, it said the epidemic might have reached the halfway mark at 218,800 cases. However, since then, the daily number of new cases has risen from an average of about 6,500 to about 7,200, according to WHO data.


http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2017/07/11/2003674346

[waltky]

Yemen struggling under cholera epidemic...
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Yemen struggling under weight of cholera epidemic
Aug. 2, 2017 ) -- Two groups warned this week about the ongoing cholera epidemic in Yemen, reinvigorating calls for international humanitarian aid.


The groups said Yemen is battling a slew of other problems that, coupled with the cholera crisis, are taking their toll on the country's vulnerable citizens. The United Nations, in a post Tuesday, said there have been at least 400,000 cholera cases in the country reported in the past few months. The cases have led to nearly 2,000 deaths.

The global children's advocacy group Save the Children also warned of Yemen's dire situation -- saying the epidemic is especially harming the very youngest Yemenis.[ The group described "hot zones" where there are especially high rates of cholera. In those areas, it said, there are more than 1 million malnourished children under the age of 5 -- including almost 200,000 suffering from severe malnutrition.


https://cdnph.upi.com/svc/sv/i/3101501684071/2017/1/15016864942403/Yemen-struggling-under-weight-of-cholera-epidemic.jpg
Cholera-infected Yemenis receive treatment amid an outbreak in Sana'a, Yemen. Humanitarian organizations warned this week an acute cholera outbreak in Yemen has claimed the lives of nearly 1,900 people since April.

If they contract cholera, those malnourished children are at least three times more likely to die because they already have weakened immune systems, Save the Children estimated. The United Nations said the country's continued war, lack of proper sanitation systems, economic struggles and prevalent rates of poverty are worsening the cholera crisis' effects. Government forces have fought Houthi rebels for the last two years in Yemen.

The country is "racing towards the edge of a cliff," Auke Lootsma, U.N. Development Program Country Director, said. He also noted that 70 percent of Yemenis need humanitarian aid. "After two years of armed conflict, children are trapped in a brutal cycle of starvation and sickness. And it's simply unacceptable," Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children's Country Director for Yemen, said in that group's news release. "Our teams are dealing with a horrific scenario of babies and young children who are not only malnourished but also infected with cholera."

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/08/02/Yemen-struggling-under-weight-of-cholera-epidemic/3101501684071/?utm_source=sec&utm_campaign=sl&utm_medium=8

[donttread]

Concerned about another "intervention" ? Really? Just one?

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - the Donald kickin' jihadi butt..
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US Troops on Ground in Yemen Against AQAP Terror Group
4 Aug 2017 | A small team of U.S. Special Forces troops is on the ground in the midst of Yemen's civil war in support of an operation against the Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) terror group, the Pentagon said Friday.


The U.S. troops are limited to advisory and intelligence work, but they could be drawn into conflict in self-defense, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. "They certainly could be. Combat can always happen." The amphibious assault ship Bataan with several hundred Marines aboard is also operating in the region, but troops and aircraft from the ship are not involved in the current operation, Davis said. The U.S. team on the ground is supporting an offensive by forces of the United Arab Emirates and the ousted government of Yemeni Prime President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. The partnered forces are moving against AQAP strongholds in the Shabwah governorate, Davis said.


http://images05.military.com/media/global/newscred/yemen-bombing-1800-04-aug-2017-ts600.jpeg
Soldiers gather the site of a suicide bomb at a base in the southern city of Aden, Yemen

U.S. forces have conducted scores of airstrikes in Yemen and carried out occasional ground raids since Jan. 29, when a Navy SEAL -- Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens, 36, of Peoria, Ill. -- was killed in the first military operation authorized by President Donald Trump. Three other SEALs were wounded and a Marine MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft was destroyed in the operation. Since Feb. 28, the U.S. has carried out at least 80 airstrikes in Yemen, including close-air support for UAE and Yemeni government forces, Davis said. He said the U.S. had not carried out close-air support missions in the current offensive against AQAP, but he did not rule them out in the future.

Yemen's civil war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2.5 million and caused a humanitarian catastrophe and cholera epidemic in one of the world's poorest countries, according to the United Nations and human rights groups. The war began in March 2015 when Houthi rebels, members of the Shia Zaydi sect and backed by Iran, overran the capital of Sanaa, forcing the Hadi government to flee. Saudi Arabia then came to the aid of Hadi, forming a coalition of Arab states including Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan. The U.S. has been supplying Saudi Arabia with aerial refueling and intelligence flights.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/08/04/us-troops-ground-yemen-aqap-terror-group.html

[Peter1469]

AQAP probably represents the biggest threat to the US of all of the Islamist groups. At least the US is targeting them in Yemen and not getting involved in the civil war.

[waltky]

Yemen cholera epidemic: Cases exceed 500,000...
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Yemen cholera epidemic: Cases exceed 500,000 in four months
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 - The overall caseload has declined since early July, but 5,000 people a day are still being infected.


The number of suspected cases of cholera resulting from an epidemic in war-torn Yemen has reached 500,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. At least 1,975 people have died since the waterborne disease began to spread rapidly at the end of April. The WHO said the overall caseload had declined since July, but that 5,000 people a day were still being infected. The disease spread due to deteriorating hygiene and sanitation conditions and disruptions to the water supply. More than 14 million people are cut off from regular access to clean water and sanitation in Yemen, and waste collection has ceased in major cities.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholera. Most of those infected will have no or mild symptoms but, in severe cases, the disease can kill within hours if left untreated. Yemen's health service has struggled to cope with the cholera epidemic - currently the largest in the world - with more than half of all medical facilities closed due to damage sustained during more than two years of conflict between pro-government forces and the rebel Houthi movement.


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A Yemeni child infected with cholera receives treatment at a hospital in Sanaa

The WHO said shortages in medicines and supplies were persistent and widespread, and that 30,000 health workers had not been paid in almost a year. "Yemen's health workers are operating in impossible conditions," said the WHO's director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "Thousands of people are sick, but there are not enough hospitals, not enough medicines, not enough clean water. "These doctors and nurses are the backbone of the health response - without them we can do nothing in Yemen. They must be paid their wages so that they can continue to save lives."

The WHO and its partners are working to set up cholera treatment clinics, rehabilitate health facilities, deliver medical supplies and support Yemen's health response effort. More than 99% of people infected who can access health services are surviving. Dr Tedros called on all sides in Yemen's conflict, which has killed more than 8,160 people and injured 46,330 since March 2015, to urgently find a political solution. "The people of Yemen cannot bear it much longer - they need peace to rebuild their lives and their country," he added.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40922963

[waltky]

An average 5,000 people fall sick every day...
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Pregnant, breastfeeding women among most at risk in Yemen's cholera outbreak
Friday 18th August, 2017 -- In the midst of the cholera outbreak in Yemen, where an average 5,000 people fall sick every day, the United Nations population agency is warning about the dangers to pregnant and breastfeeding women.


"Pregnant and breastfeeding women, especially those who are malnourished, are particularly vulnerable. An estimated 1.1 million malnourished pregnant women are at risk, requiring immediate care," the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) recently said. One of these women is Ibtisam, who contracted cholera when she was nine months pregnant. "I went to a health facility in my hometown in Rayma Governorate, but they did not know what was wrong with me," she told UNFPA. "I felt I was going to die and lose my baby. I was going to have my first child, and I was desperate not to lose my child." Pregnant and breastfeeding women are especially vulnerable to malnutrition, and those weakened by the nutrition crisis are more prone to infections, including cholera.


http://cdn.bignewsnetwork.com/un-1503001296.jpg

Ibtisam and her husband then travelled five hours to the nearest hospital in the capital, Sana'a, where she was diagnosed and treated for cholera. "Ibitsam was in her last month of pregnancy. If she [arrived] a day or two later, we are not sure we could have saved her or her baby," Dr. Farea, who helped treat her, told the UN agency. UNFPA has said that the cholera crisis in Yemen is the worst in the world, and its magnitude is linked to the ongoing conflict and displacement crisis, the breakdown of health and sanitation systems, and serious food insecurity.

Women as agents of change

While among the most vulnerable, women can also play a key role in controlling the spread of cholera because they are traditionally tasked with preparing food. Cholera often spreads through contaminated food or water. "If women are made aware about the steps they can take to prevent cholera and detect its symptoms at an early stage, we can save a lot of lives," Dr. Farea said.

Aman'a, a 35-year-old mother of five, told UNFAP that was aware of the need for good hygiene, but hardship conditions have made disease prevention difficult. "At home, I take all the precautions when preparing food, and make sure my children follow the same. Yet I was infected after visiting one of my relatives," she said. "I try to tell my friends and family to maintain good hygiene and wash fruits and vegetables with clean water several times before cooking." The UN agency said it has stepped up efforts to assist women and girls in Yemen, distributing dignity kits 8211 which contain soap, sanitary napkins and basic clothes 8211 and supporting midwives, mobile clinics and community outreach.

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/254392817/pregnant-breastfeeding-women-among-most-at-risk-in-yemen-cholera-outbreak