refugees

A photo-essay of the of how war is affecting people in Yemen. Doctors Without Borders has called it a “war on civilians.”

And here is a statement from one man:

“Our nation was a poor nation even before this crisis and before this war. Can you imagine now after 14 countries in a coalition surprisingly declared war and huge airstrikes against us while we were safe in our homes? We did not expect such an action to take place, and were not prepared. We cannot prepare for that. We immediately fled to fields, to mountains, and to deserted old villages and buildings. We lived there for a while with wild animals and monkeys! We were terrified, fighting with the animals, suffering diseases and lack of food, lack of everything, lack of safety and protection.

My boy is 18 months old. Whenever he hears warplanes he shouts “Papa, Papa!” Terrified. He is traumatized. He was fat, and now…

We are human beings. We are people, human beings.”

A recent report by the group Physicians for Human Rights described the plight of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who resettled in Bangladesh. Starvation conditions were said to be widespread among the estimated 200,000 to 400,000 refugees, with 18.2% of children aged 5 years or younger showing signs of acute malnutrition. For comparison, a rate of 10% is considered by humanitarian agencies to be a serious situation, while 15% is considered critical.