The Humanitarian Disaster You Haven't Heard About

by Michael Bear · 2009-09-17 19:55:00 UTC
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Here at Humanitarian Relief central, located deep underneath Skull Mountain, we use the world's most cutting-edge technology to detect and track humanitarian disasters worldwide. Mostly Google Reader. And recently, the Google Reader Emergency Alert Tracker (GREAT) has been going haywire over - wait for it, wait for it - Yemen.

Yes, Yemen.

Granted, it's been a rough fifteen centuries or so in Arabia Felix, but recently things have taken a decided turn for the worse. A brutal little civil war in the north of the country has caused 150,000 people - mostly women and children - to flee their homes.

Needless to say, the plight of the displaced is not-good. According to UNHCR: "Most of the displaced are stranded and dangerously exposed to the fighting as they are unable to reach safer areas...Hundreds of families are currently living in schools or even in the open, on the sides of roads, and under bridges, with little to feed on."

And that's when they're not being bombed by their own government. Tribal leaders report that over 80 civilians were killed yesterday when the Yemeni air force bombed a makeshift displaced person camps.

As is often the case in such situations, insecurity has made it increasingly difficult for humanitarian agencies to reach those most in need. Meanwhile, the UN has had to reduce its food distributions due to lack of funding.

That said, Shibam is quite nice.

[Photo of Sana'a from Ahron de Leeuw's photostream on flickr - Creative Commons, Attribution. Point of fact, the fighting is further north, in Saada - if anyone has a decent picture of Sa'ada, let me know.]

Michael Bear
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