FIVE international charities have urged the United States to halt all military support for a Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Shiite rebels, saying this will save millions of lives.
A joint statement by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Oxfam America, CARE US, Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council said 14 million people are at risk of starving to death in Yemen if the parties to the conflict do not change course.
“Starvation must not be used as a weapon of war against Yemeni civilians,” they said.
A survey commissioned by the IRC found three-quarters (75%) of Americans oppose US weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the war, and two thirds of Yemen’s 27m people rely on aid.
More than eight million are at risk of starvation in what has become the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
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