Saudi-Led Coalition Aims to Destroy Food Production, Distribution in Yemen

"If one places the damage to the resources of food producers (farmers, herders, and fishers) alongside the targeting of food processing, storage and transport in urban areas and the wider economic war, there is strong evidence that Coalition strategy has aimed to destroy food production and distribution in the areas under the control of Sanaa,” a report, titled ‘Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War: Aerial Bombardment and Food War’, published earlier this week by the World Peace Foundation, said.

The report, which is a compilation of data from various sources on the impact of the coalition’s aggression on the production and distribution of food in rural Yemen, and on fishing along the Red Sea coast, goes on to explain that the deliberate destruction of “family farming and artisanal fishing” is a war crime.

"Deliberate destruction of family farming and artisanal fishing is a war crime. Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the United Kingdom and France are signatories to the 1977 Protocol I additional to the Geneva Conventions, which gives the fullest statement in International Humanitarian Law on the protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.”

The report includes data collected by several organizations within Yemen, including the Yemen Data Project, the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, and the Ministry of Fish Wealth.

"Together, the data detail the overall levels of targeting civilian, military and unknown sites... the systematic targeting of agricultural areas including the character of the site, and the frequency and timeline of targeting."

It goes on to document the killing of fishermen along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, and the destruction of boats and infrastructure required to support small-scale fishing which “otherwise could provide life-saving food for a civilian population on the brink of famine".

The report cites data from the General Authority of Fishing in the Red Sea when it states that 146 fishermen have died as a result of coalition airstrikes from the beginning of the war until December 2017.

Saudi Arabia and some of its allies, including the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Sudan, launched a brutal war against Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall Yemen’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

The aggression initially consisted of a bombing campaign but was later coupled with a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces to Yemen. Some 15,000 Yemenis have so far been killed and thousands more injured.

The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The United Nations (UN) has said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

A number of Western countries, the United States and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.