The news coming out of Yemen these days paints a bleak picture – more than 10,000 conflict-related deaths, an ongoing cholera epidemic and now the risk of famine for 14 million people. Even more shocking is the fact this has been caused, in part, by a deliberate economic blockade in a country dependent on imports for 90 per cent of its food, and from targeted airstrikes on local farms and fisheries.
What is little discussed, however, is the degree to which many – mostly Western – governments around the world are complicit in the starvation of the Yemeni people, using far-reaching counter-terrorism laws which directly block the delivery of aid, including food aid, and prevent humanitarian organisations from doing their work.
While these laws are ostensibly aimed at reducing the chances of aid money ending up in the hands of terrorists, the reality is they make it extremely difficult for aid organisations to carry out their life-saving work in regions where they are often needed most and cut off besieged populations from key supplies, such as food.
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