Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman said the world is turning a blind eye to the plight of millions of people suffering in her war-torn nation plagued by hunger and disease. Karman, 38, won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in leading protests against longtime former President Ali Abdullah Saleh during the Yemeni uprising. She was the first Arab woman and second Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
"The world doesn't pay enough attention to Yemen. It's the forgotten land. There's a lot of suffering in our country. There's a big famine and cholera there," Karman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "The country has been besieged for three years, state employees have been unpaid for months, and people have no access to basic services such as water, electricity, health and food."
21 million Yemenis – about 80 percent of the population – need aid.
"Simply put, the Arab coalition led by the Emirates and Saudi Arabia has broken its commitment towards the humanitarian situation in the country," Karman said. "Unfortunately, this coalition deals with this war just as a battle to fire bombs and throw missiles, ignoring the consequences," she said. "We call for immediate cessation of air strikes because they offer nothing but shelling of residential areas and causing more civilian casualties."
"The world doesn't pay enough attention to Yemen. It's the forgotten land. There's a lot of suffering in our country. There's a big famine and cholera there," Karman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "The country has been besieged for three years, state employees have been unpaid for months, and people have no access to basic services such as water, electricity, health and food."
21 million Yemenis – about 80 percent of the population – need aid.
"Simply put, the Arab coalition led by the Emirates and Saudi Arabia has broken its commitment towards the humanitarian situation in the country," Karman said. "Unfortunately, this coalition deals with this war just as a battle to fire bombs and throw missiles, ignoring the consequences," she said. "We call for immediate cessation of air strikes because they offer nothing but shelling of residential areas and causing more civilian casualties."
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