Life in Yemen Is Sophie's Choice
People rummaging through trash for food. Families subsisting on leaves. Children receiving medical attention far too late for them to be saved.
Such stories have become the norm in Yemen, where a nearly four-year civil war has left tens of thousands of people dead. The prolonged violence and the array of resulting crises have created what the United Nations says is the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. Half of the Yemeni population is considered to be on the brink of famine, with at least three-quarters reliant on humanitarian assistance, and aid workers have described scenes of increasing desperation as what little there is runs out.
The slow-moving catastrophe—and American involvement in it—has drawn increasing concern in the United States. On Wednesday, those objections were echoed in the halls of Congress, to open debate on a measure that would end American military support for the Saudi-led effort backing the Yemeni government. The United States is Saudi Arabia’s arms supplier, and its equipment has been used in an air campaign that has devastated the country’s infrastructure and of civilians. While opprobrium had been building for months over the humanitarian crisis, the debate has reached a crescendo following revelations of high-level Saudi involvement in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
