The UK has the unique ability to influence international matters given its position on the UN security council, sitting at the head table for global affairs. Just this week we have shown the ability to set the agenda there, raising the current developments in Myanmar and calling for a security council meeting. However, all too often we are too slow to address the world’s crises. Nowhere is this clearer than with the current greatest humanitarian crisis worldwide: Yemen. For over two years, its civil war has continued, with over 10,000 civilians dead. Across the country, bombings have destroyed medical infrastructure and over half a million civilians suffer from cholera. Directly and indirectly, thousands are being killed in the conflict and over 19 million Yemenis are hungry.
We have seen increasing media coverage of Yemen’s cholera epidemic and this is welcome, drawing attention to the extreme suffering of the Yemeni people. But we must recognise the full story: the reason that disease is rife in Yemen is that this once beautiful country is being ripped apart by conflict and all aid efforts are significantly handicapped as a result of this. This brings us back to the UK at the security council. The UN general assembly will sit on 12 September. As the world comes to New York, now is the time to table a new resolution that will end the conflict in Yemen for good, and stop the bombings.
Keith Vaz MP
Chair, all-party parliamentary group on Yemen
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