In a perfect storm, the Trump administration is reportedly seeking deep cuts to UN relief programs, just as 20 million people face famine. Colum Lynch reports in Foreign Policy that the White House has instructed the State Department and the...
What three conditions trigger the United Nations to declare a “famine?” What causes a famine? And how do you stop a famine? These questions are acute right now as the world faces an unprecedented number of people living in famine...
Famine kills children first. Famine does not simply mean “lack of food.” Rather it is a threshold against which indicators like childhood mortality are measured to determine whether the lack of food is causing people to starve to death in...
In UN-speak there are five levels of “food insecurity.” This ranges from generally food secure to famine. The chart below, from the Food and Agriculture Organization, gives you a sense of the indicators that humanitarian agencies use to determine where...
Scott Shane is a veteran reporter with the New York Times. His latest book is titled Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President and the Rise of the Drone. It tells the story of Anwar al-Awlaki and President Obama’s decision to kill...
Yemen is the region’s poorest country. And since the Arab Spring it’s also been one of the most unstable countries in the Gulf. Now, the civil war in Yemen is getting worse by the day. Hospitals are being routinely bombed,...
Senator Chris Murphy wants to change a bedrock relationship in US foreign policy. In April this year he introduced legislation to restrict arms sales to Saudi Arabia over that country’s conduct in the war in Yemen. The Saudi-led air campaign...
The conflict in Yemen may not routinely make headlines around the globe. But it is grueling on, and increasingly becoming an ugly conflict in which the basic laws of war are routinely ignored. The worst offender is Saudi Arabia, which...
Yemen, as you know doubt know, is currently in the midst of an awful civil war. The conflict began in March last year. Thousands have been killed in the fighting and hundreds of thousands displaced. Humanitarian conditions are abysmal. Hospitals...
