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Humanity & Inclusion (HI)’s report “Death Sentence to Civilians: The Long-Term Impact of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas in Yemen” demonstrates how the use of explosive weapons in Yemen will impact on Yemenis lives for decades: critical infrastructure and services necessary for food, transport, health, and water such as ports, roads, health facilities, and water systems have been damaged or destroyed.
In 5 years of war, Yemen has been devastated by the use of explosive weapons: the organisation, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) reports that nearly 16,300 people have been killed or injured by explosive weapons between 2015 and 2018. About 80% of them were civilians. When explosive weapons were used in populated areas in Yemen, AOAV has found that 95% of casualties were civilians.
Extensive bombing of populated areas in Yemen has sent the country back 25 years. That’s a whole generation. Yemen will not be able to bear the appalling cost of reconstruction, or even the vital decontamination of explosive remnants of war that will be necessary prior to any reconstruction.
50% of medical facilities no longer function while 19.7 million people are in need of healthcare and 17.8 million people lack access to safe water and sanitation. The economic blockade and disruption to the economy have inflated the cost of food and fuel. The damage to critical infrastructure has exacerbated humanitarian needs in the country, where 24.1 million people (three quarters of the population) are in need of humanitarian aid.
Humanity & Inclusion’s teams are supporting children, women and men with disabilities and injuries from the conflict in Yemen. Our teams are seeing first-hand the impact of the conflict on the Yemeni population.
“Bombing and shelling in Yemen kills and injures civilians on the spot. It also has a lingering and long-term impact for generations of people that will survive the war. If the war in Yemen was to end today, people would still have to bear the brunt of destroyed roads, bridges, hospitals and harbours. This damage and destruction has caused a sharp decrease of health access, making access to basic goods, including medicine and basic services, much more difficult. Even before the conflict, Yemen had insufficient health, water, and transport infrastructure. The massive and repetitive use of explosive weapons in populated areas for 5 years has made Yemen even more vulnerable.”
says Alison Bottomley, Humanity & Inclusion Advocacy Advisor.
Humanity & Inclusion as a co-founding member of the International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW) is working with States to develop a strong political declaration to end the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas and to ensure support to the victims of these weapons.
Thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery we have been able to keep fighting to end the use of explosive weapons in populated areas through Humanity & Inclusion’s “Stop Bombing Civilians” campaign.
Thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery we will be able to reach even more members of the public with our Stop Bombing Civilians campaign.
