The situation in Yemen is increasingly serious

The war in Yemen has been under way for three years, but has a minor resonance than the Syrian one; last August was one of the most tragic due to the sad accounting of the victims, which reached 981 dead, including more than 300 children. Civilian deaths are accidents justified by the Saudi military as legitimate acts of war, with cynical and insensitive bureaucratic practices, which are part of the strategy used against the Shiite rebels. That put into practice by the Sunni coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, which includes Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, is a conduct that combines military action with the inevitable indiscriminate reprisals, the use of the almost total humanitarian block to use hunger and disease as a weapon of war. This practice could however be framed within the crime of war crime, if there was a concrete willingness to pursue this path from the United Nations, perhaps a solution could be opened for this conflict; however the war continues almost ignored by the press and international organizations. Only non-governmental organizations try to carry on their work in increasingly difficult situations and with the real risk for their operators to be hit by Sunni coalition air strikes. The health situation in the country is collapsing because of cholera, which has infected at least half a million people and has caused over two thousand deaths in the last three months alone. An important fact is the economic one: Yemen is the poorest state in the Middle East and already under normal conditions the food supply is difficult, which makes it even more difficult to find food resources in a state of war where supplies are almost stuck, both by the military, that from the condition of the system of communication ways, which is damaged practically in its entirety. Politically for Arabia and its allies it is a war that represents the retaliation against Iran, but also against Russia, for the victory in Syria, which was a goal of the Sunni countries. A defeat of the Yemeni rebels of Shiite religion could be a weakening for Tehran, which sought a basis for countering the Sunni monarchies. Within the conflictual framework of the relations between Teheran and Washington, an American role within the conflict is present, even if defunct. Already with Obama the US had avoided interfering in the conflict, remaining neutral, not to increase the distance with Riyad because of the Iranian nuclear agreement, but with Trump president the feeling is that the United States are collaborating with the Sunni alliance in anti-Iranian optics. The lack of international sanctioning of Saudi Arabia for the practices adopted in Yemen can also be read as a strategic element against Tehran; this allows the Saudis to continue to oppose the opening of humanitarian corridors, both for refugees and for supplies of medicines and foodstuffs. The one practiced by Riyadh is an almost total isolation, which despite failing to overcome the military resistance of the rebels, reduces the possibility of survival of civilians, forcing them to enormous suffering. Another factor that exacerbates the situation is the presence in some areas of the country of groups of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, which being Sunni also incite themselves on the Shiite population. If the United Nations does not perform its function, because they are probably hostage to the US, what is astonishing is the silence of Europe, which once again proves fearful and unable to become an authoritative international subject, perhaps because of Arab investments present on the continent. The increasingly serious humanitarian emergency remains, because military violence has also increased, infringing international and humanitarian law in a context of absolute silence.