Why Is No-one Trying to Stop the War in Yemen?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2017
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s two years since the start of the Saudi-led military campaign in support of the Yemeni government which was ousted by Houthi rebels. The war has been a disaster for countless civilians. Thousands have been killed and the country is on the brink of famine. The UN is calling it a humanitarian crisis. And yet it’s far from clear which – if any – of the multiple nations and groups involved in the conflict is working to end it. In other words, our question this week, why is no one trying to stop the war in Yemen?
Presenter: Ruth Alexander Producer: Estelle Doyle
(Photo: Houthi rebels, march in a parade during a gathering in the capital Sanaa to mobilize more fighters to battlefronts to fight pro-government forces in several Yemeni cities. Getty)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
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| 0:25.7 | and a lot more watching. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.9 | In April 2015, we asked, what is the Yemen conflict really about? |
| 0:35.4 | Two years on, we want to know, why is no one trying to stop the war in Yemen? |
| 0:41.1 | You don't need to have heard our first programme. We'll explain it all now. It's a war that |
| 0:45.3 | doesn't make it into the news all that much and yet it's ruining the lives of millions of people. of bordering Amman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the north. |
| 1:03.2 | And for the last two years it's been in the grip of a vicious war. |
| 1:07.6 | The United Nations says over 10,000 people have been killed |
| 1:12.0 | and many more injured. Poor, even in better times, and now devastated |
| 1:17.0 | by conflict, it's also on the brink of famine, threatening the lives of millions. The war in Yemen hasn't exactly been ignored by the world, |
| 1:27.0 | but it's not often front-page news either. I just looked at the main pages of the CNN, BBC and |
| 1:32.4 | Al Jazeera websites, the word Yemen doesn't appear on any of them. |
| 1:37.0 | Despite the immense suffering in Yemen, it doesn't feel like there's any great international |
| 1:44.3 | clamor on the part of governments or voters to do much about it. And then there are |
| 1:49.9 | the protagonists themselves. They don't seem to be looking for a way out of the |
| 1:54.0 | conflict either. I'm Ruth Alexander. This is the inquiry and we're asking |
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