Whilst the West is obsessed with the 'Syria problem' and the rise of Islamic State (or whatever we're calling it this week), elsewhere an equally appalling slaughter of innocents is taking place.
Yemen has been a cauldron for decades, sometimes simmering relatively gently, then bubbling fiercely, but mostly beyond the gaze of outsiders unless its a slow news day, or a particularly noticeable atrocity is carried out. Marxists versus the rest when it was North and South Yemen, tribe against tribe, Yemen offers a kaleidoscope of opportunities for those seeking to forment uprisings against the administration of the day. As Captain Carrot said of Klatch, in Terry Pratchett's 'Jingo', Yemen isn't so much a country as an argument.
But, it now offers another outlet in the struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia for dominance in the region, resulting in a pretty one-sided war of annihilation between the rebel Houthis and the Saudis, whereby the Saudis bring death from the skies upon a population with no means of fighting back. And nobody appears to do anything to stop them...
So far, there hasn't been an outpouring of refugees similar to that from Syria, mostly because there aren't many options for escape. Crossing the seas off the southern coast means dodging Somali pirates who still operate in those waters, with the likelihood of landing somewhere not very stable even if you make it - Eritrea or Somalia, anyone?
As a result, there doesn't appear to much impetus to do anything. And yet, people are dying in droves. So, why doesn't the United Kingdom, or the European Union, do more to restrict the suffering of the Yemeni people? Sponsorship of a conference to bring together the different parties, calls for a cessation of aerial bombing, a United Nations resolution, something that might give the people some respite?
We're a Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council, the European Union aspires to a role in world diplomacy. Yemen might be a good place to use that to some effect...
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