Yemen’s women and children bear the consequences of conflict

Yemen’s women and children bear the consequences of western-backed airstrikes and conflict in the country

On the 7th April, UNICEF reported that the majority of the 100,000 who have fled their homes in Yemen since the start of the Saudi-led airstrikes against Houthi controlled regions of the country two weeks ago, have been women and children.

The organisation also stated that 74 children had been killed and 44 maimed since March 26th but emphasized that these were conservative figures and that it believes the total number of children killed is much higher.

On 7th April, Reuters reported that airstrikes in the village of Beit Rajal, west of the capital Sana’a killed 3 women and 3 children mostly from the same family.

This is simply one of many incidents where the innocent women and children of Yemen have paid the heavy price of the Western-backed offensive, Operation Decisive Storm and the continuing internal conflict within the country.

Amnesty International reported that at least 6 children under the age of 10 were killed in airstrikes on Sana’a on 26th March which turned 14 houses to rubble in a residential neighbourhood near the city’s international airport.

In an airstrike on the 30th March on the al-Mazraq camp for internally displaced persons situated in north Yemen, at least 11 children were amongst the dozens injured and killed. And it was reported that 4 children burned to death as a result of strikes in the Ibb governorate on the 31st March, whose fatalities also included 2 women.

Many other women and children have also been injured or killed as a result of the internal conflict raging within the country between Houthi fighters and forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Comment:

Prior to the Saudi-led offensive, Operation Decisive Storm, Yemen was already facing a dire humanitarian situation. According to Oxfam, 6 out of every 10 Yemenis were without adequate food, clean water, and access to basic services, including a million children who were suffering from extreme malnutrition. 334,000 people were already registered as internally displaced in Yemen due to the many years of internal conflict that has plagued the country. Now with this current crisis, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated further. The violence has destroyed private homes, hospitals, educational facilities and the infrastructure in many locations, affecting electricity and water supplies and resulting in the overflowing of sewage in some areas, raising the risk of disease. Other towns are fast running out of food and fresh water. All of which is making life unbearable for millions of Yemen’s women and children.

Yemen is the latest example of how the loss of lives of innocent Muslim women and children has become yet again collateral damage of Western government fuelled conflicts in our lands who are more than happy to fund, arm, and incite to war their favoured players in the region for the sake of selfish interests regardless of the humanitarian cost. This is not a Sunni-Shia conflict, nor is it simply a fight between the Houthis and the regime of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his Saudi and Gulf backers. Rather, it is a result of the age-old struggle between colonial governments – in this case the US and Britain – to establish their preferred players in power in the country to serve their colonial political and economic interests. Shamefully, the regimes of the Muslim world have therefore accepted once again to turn another of our lands into a field of destruction and graveyard for Muslim women and children at the behest of their Western masters and their colonial plans. How ironic it is that a regime that claims to be the custodian of the two Holy Mosques, ignores the following hadith of the Messenger (saw):

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Abdulla bin Umar (ra) said, ‘I saw the Prophet (saw) doing tawwaf around the Ka'aba saying "How sweet are you and how sweet is your scent. How great are you and how great is your sanctity. By the One who the soul of Mohammad is in His Hand the sanctity of a believer is greater with Allah than your sanctity". Indeed, it is a hadith that all those who are so ready to spill the blood of their Muslim brothers need to consider with the utmost seriousness.

It is clear that over the past nine decades in the absence of the Khilafah and the presence of man-made systems in the Muslim world, our lands have been plagued with debilitating insecurities and violence due to the political rivalries of various parties and factions vying for power and who have been used by foreign powers for their own gain. Furthermore, the inevitable oppression, nepotism, and cronyism resulting from the rule of non-Islamic regimes over the people has simply generated huge anger and frustration amongst various sections of society who have been denied their rights and a dignified standard of living, laying the foundation for instability and conflict, of which women and children have been primary victims. It is surely time to rid ourselves of these Western-serving regimes and governing systems which have acted as both the wick and the flame to the burning of our lands and replace them with the glorious Khilafah state. It is this state alone that will prevent foreign manipulation of the politics of our land and that has a domestic policy to unify all elements of the society. This it achieves through the comprehensive implementation of the Islamic system which will ensure dignity, rights, prosperity and justice is delivered to all citizens equally, without bias or favouritism, in a manner which only Laws emanating from the Creator of the Universe, The All-Knowledgeable, The All-Aware can guarantee.

Written for The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz

Director of the Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

ENDS

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