In Yemen, Six Children Are Killed Or Wounded in the Fighting, Every Single Day

I have asked, very rhetorically: Why does the world only seem to care about casualties that occur when Israel takes defensive action against Palestine?

Why does no one ever talk about the human toll in other conflicts?

To re-phrase Shakespeare -- "If someone is pricked by a non-Jew, does he not also bleed?

taken from Le Figaro

Translated from Le Figaro. Not sure if any US or UK outlets will give this story much play.

In a report published Tuesday, UNICEF offers warnings about the catastrophic situation of Yemeni children, the first victims of the conflict between the rebels and loyalists for the the past year.

Violence, deprivation, fear, recruitment [into armies] -- the daily lives of Yemeni children are as terrifying but little documented.

Yes, because there is a Palestine Caucus the world media obeys and dutifully re-transmits their propaganda -- but otherwise, people don't seem to report on the fact that war, generally, has a lot of casualties. Which makes Israel-Palestine conflicts seem worse, because you never hear about this in any other sort of conflict.

Well, that's not totally true -- you're sure to hear all about casualties caused by American troops, too.

But everyone else can butcher to their heart's content and know the world (and American) press will give them free reign to do so.

Nearly a year to the day after the start of the war, which has caused 6,300 deaths of which most are civilians, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) published its report on the catastrophic situation of children in Yemen. "In this conflict, the children pay a heavy price. They are killed or wounded in all of the country and are not safe anywhere. Even playing or sleeping can be dangerous," said Julien Harneis, the representative of UNICEF in Yemen.

The numbers speak for themselves: 934 children killed and 1,356 wounded in the conflict which has for a year pitted the rebel Shiite Houtis, who control the north of the country, and a loyalist coalition led by Saudi Arabia. Since March 2015, six children are killed or wounded each day on average, principally in the north othe country, in the cities of Taiz, Sanaa, Aden, and Hajjah. All told, the children represent around a third of all civilian deaths. Worse still, as dramatic as they are, these statistics "are only the tip of the iceberg, [only] the incidents that UNICEF has been able to verify," notes the report.

In most of the cases, "the children are not targeted directly," says Julien Harneis, but are the collateral victims -- and "pointless" -- in a use of force "disproportionate and indiscriminate," in cities having a high density of population. In all, the report finds, 61% of the children killed since 2015 had been killed by blind [untargeted] bombing lead by Saudi air forces...

Furthermore, 320,000 children suffer from severe malnutrition, while millions of others do not have access to potable water or the most basic necessities.

I ask again, knowing I will continue to be ignored: Why are these childrens' hardships and deaths not worth noting on NBC News and CNN?

Are civilian casualties just not worth mentioning unless the Arab Lobby is pushing the world news organizations to talk them up?

Maybe add this to the Why Do They Hate Us file -- when the world media only reports on the grim toll of warare when it involves Israel and the United States, maybe people around the world get a very biased view of things.

When only two countries are reported on negatively regarding collateral damage and civilian casualties, maybe everyone else in the world gets the impression that the US and Israel are uniquely evil among all countries.

Maybe the fucking BBC could do a single report on casualties of someone other than the Israelis or America some fucking time.

posted by Ace at 06:54 PM

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