I Blog Poetry and Prose

Fighting in Hodeidah Reaches Residential Streets

Jamál (Beauty), 8 Qudrat (Power) 175 B.E. - Sunday, November 11, 2018

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Search for and read a recent news story from a country other than your own. (EDIT: or from your own country ) Share any thoughts/opinions/commentary you have on the article.

"Fighting in Yemen city of Hodeidah reaches residential streets"1

The cease fire, demanded by Yemen's allies, is being ignored by the nations Saudi Arabia backed government. Fighting has moved into the streets of Hodeidah, putting more of Yemen's citizens at risk of death through because of collateral damage, lack of medical care, and starvation. Since 80% of the aid sent to Yemen comes through Hodeidah everyone in this country is at risks of famine.

The grain mills, south of this port city, were taken by pro-coalition troops on Saturday. According to the UN spokesperson in Yemen, the mills contain about "51,000 tonnes of wheat"2. So far, shelling had not damaged the silos, but the production of flour has stopped. Ali Reza Qureshi3 says: “We hope production will resume in the coming next two weeks as we get 21,000 tonnes monthly from those mills. Otherwise we will have to import wheat flour.”

Bodies in the street,
and citizens on the verge of starvation:
all humanity suffers when one fragment of it suffers.

The international community is planning to send food assistance in an attempt “to avert mass starvation”.4 However, if food assistance is, for some reason, prevented over 14 million people face death because of famine.

Humanity is a single species,
humanity is an interconnection race,
everyone on the planet is threatened
when part of the species is threatened.

I am not going to refer to the fighting in Yemen as a war because it is only one of the battles occurring the the twenty-first century version of the World War that has been fought on Earth since World War I. The battle in Yemen will eventually end. The question is "Who will win?" Will the citizens and humanity win or will one of the governmental factions win. If the latter is the case, the factions will continue to fight each other, while killing more civilians than troop casualties.

Footnotes
1  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/fighting-in-yemen-city-of-hodeidah...
2  ibid.
3  The deputy directer for the World Food Programme (WFP).
4  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/fighting-in-yemen-city-of-hodeidah...