While Yemen has struggled to contain the novel coronavirus amid a years-long humanitarian crisis, the Trump administration has withdrawn critical aid that has led to drastic cuts in aid programs in the country and made the situation worse. The move comes after years of U.S. involvement in Yemen backing a Saudi-led coalition that has targeted civilians and infrastructure sites. The violent conflict has left millions displaced and at risk of famine in what the United Nations labels the world’s most dire humanitarian crisis.
Still, cable and broadcast news media have largely failed at covering the ramifications of United States’ foreign policy in Yemen. In March, when President Donald Trump moved to cut critical aid from the country, humanitarian groups warned of the potential for the coronavirus to have a detrimental impact in the region. When the coronavirus pandemic began to hit Yemen in April, it was reported that dozens of U.N. programs intended to assist the country were likely to be shut down due to the U.S. aid cuts. In June, the U.N. warned that financial aid was needed in the region to deter the shuttering of 31 out of 41 humanitarian aid programs.
But CNN and Fox News, along with CBS, NBC, and ABC’s nightly news programs, all failed to cover the aid cuts and their subsequent impact on the efforts to contain the coronavirus in Yemen. MSNBC’s coverage, though still minimal, included a thorough report that detailed efforts in Yemen to contain the coronavirus amid the United States’ humanitarian aid cuts.
The humanitarian crisis in Yemen
Over five years of civil war in the region has led to an unconscionable crisis. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, has reported that “extreme shortages of food, safe water, sanitation and healthcare, as well as deadly massive outbreaks of cholera and diphtheria have taken a heavy toll on civilian lives and deprived families of basic needs.”
Roughly 24 million people in the country -- 80% of the population -- require some form of humanitarian aid. At least 70% of the population lacks access to basic supplies such as food, water, or adequate health care, as the country has seen over 1 million cholera cases registered since 2018. Nearly 15 million people, or about half the population, are on the verge of starvation, and 400,000 children suffer from severe malnutrition.
Unsurprisingly, the crisis has been greatly compounded by the emergence of the coronavirus. The spread of the virus has caused so much death in the country that mass graves have been dug, and the U.N. has warned that the death toll from the virus could surpass the combined death toll from war, disease, and famine over the last five years.
The United States’ role
Since 2015, the United States has lent its support to an effort led by Saudi Arabia to interfere in the civil war, which has included “a relentless air campaign where Saudi warplanes and bombs hit thousands of targets, including civilian sites and infrastructure, with impunity.” In the spring of 2019, Congress passed a bipartisan resolution to end the U.S. involvement in Yemen, which Trump promptly vetoed.
In late March, as the world braced for the spread of the coronavirus, it was reported that the Trump administration was cutting health care aid to Yemen, despite objections from humanitarian groups that the coronavirus would likely devastate the country; Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, warned, “Many of the operations which keep people alive will close next month if funding doesn't come very soon. Already health, protection and water programmes are being scaled back.”
In late April, The Washington Post reported that 31 out of 41 of humanitarian aid programs in Yemen would likely shut down in a few weeks if the Trump administration and other donors didn’t fulfill their earlier aid pledges. Some accused the cuts of being “politically motivated,” and international groups urged the U.S. to restore funding, arguing that the U.S. has a “moral responsibility” to help Yemen with the coronavirus because of its decision to back the Saudi-led coalition: