"In Yemen’s brutal ongoing war, ‘the weakest no longer survive’" PBS NewsHour 3/15/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: What began as a civil war in 2015 between Yemen’s government and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels has evolved into a brutal proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with U.S. involvement. Jane Ferguson updates us from Yemen on the war's terrible toll, and Nick Schifrin speaks with the Biden administration's envoy about the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
SUMMARY: Many regions in East Africa are at risk of famine for the third time in 25 years. Twenty million people in the war-torn countries of Yemen, South Sudan, and Somalia, as well as drought-stricken neighbors like Ethiopia are at risk. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, on the crisis and relief efforts.
SUMMARY: South Sudan was founded in 2011, and now it's on the edge of collapse. Forces allied to the president and vice president have been fighting along tribal lines. Murderous raids on civilian communities are a favored tactic, and UN peacekeepers have been criticized for not doing more to stop them. Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
SUMMARY: Countless numbers of people in South Sudan are on the run from government troops, targeted because of their tribe amid a brutal civil war. Communities hide in the wilderness to avoid violence, but there is nothing to eat, fueling a man-made famine as aid agencies struggle to reach people. Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
SUMMARY: Rape has become a tool of war in South Sudan, wielded against women of rival tribes. In partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports from a camp for people fleeing ethnic violence where most women are rape survivors and they don’t dare leave because they fear they will be violently assaulted.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): ..... a looming famine in West Africa and one country's move to address chronic food shortages.
Our story is part of the Food for 9 Billion series, a multimedia project that explores the challenges of feeding a growing world in a time of social and environmental change. It's a NewsHour partnership with the Center for Investigative Reporting, Homelands Productions, and American Public Media's Marketplace.
Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Niger, one of eight drought-stricken countries where relief officials say millions of people are at risk of starvation.
SUMMARY: A once-in-a-generation famine is threatening millions of lives in West Africa, including hundreds of thousands of children in Niger. Rohit Kachroo of Independent Television News reports.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): And to the growing desperation in the Horn of Africa.
More than 11 million people are at risk from hunger in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Somalia is the worst-hit by famine, drought and a civil war with Islamic militants. Nearly half-a-million refugees have left Somalia to go to Kenya. Most are headed to the Dadaab camp just inside the border.
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): Now, how does something like this happen? We keep talking about a drought, and that's been a long time in coming.
JOSETTE SHEERAN, World Food Program: Right.
JEFFREY BROWN: Every time there is something like this, there is a man-made element to this, I suppose, right? We knew it was coming and there it is.
You have watched events like this. How does it happen?
JOSETTE SHEERAN: Well, droughts may not be avoidable, but famines are.
And so what we are seeing again is, in this place where this epic drought has hit, there's no water, there's no vegetation anywhere. I have flown over most of the region. This can be prevented with not only pre-action, but then emergency action when it really gets terrible. This happens. We have seen epic flooding in other places in the world, earthquakes. This is a natural disaster.
It's when you can't get access to people that you see it turn into a famine. A famine is about the state of individuals, not of the weather. And so the famine means that you have severely malnourished populations. Anything over 15 percent malnutrition rate is an emergency, and we have seen areas in Somalia now with over 45 percent. That's almost half the children in critical shape like this video that you have just shown.
