An emergency debate called by Tory MP Andrew Mitchell, the former International Development Secretary, to raise concerns about the “almighty catastrophe of biblical proportions” that he said was unfolding in the country was attended by only around 30 of Parliament’s 650 MPs.
During the debate, Mitchell told MPs: “There is rapidly rising concern in Britain about what is happening in Yemen and the part that Britain is playing in this crisis. There is deep concern that an almighty catastrophe of biblical proportions is unfolding in Yemen before our eyes, and a considerable fear that Britain is dangerously complicit in it.”
He said Saudi authorities were preventing aid shipments of food and medicine from entering Yemen.
“At least seven whole cities have run out of clean water and sanitation and aid agencies are unable to get food to starving families”, he said. “The destruction of clean water and sanitation facilities is directly responsible for the outbreak earlier this year of cholera affecting nearly one million people. Yemen is a country ravaged by medieval diseases and on the precipice of famine. With rapidly dwindling food and fuel stocks and the dire humanitarian situation pushing at least seven million people into famine, it is now vital that there is unimpeded access for both humanitarian and commercial cargo.”
Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, commented, “It is regrettable in many ways that the House is not packed today. On too many occasions the war in Yemen has been described as a forgotten war, and indeed it is.” She described the situation in Yemen as “the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis” and said the UK was partly to blame for the disaster and called on the Government to clamp down on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which is bombing Yemen.
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