(Vatican Radio) The charity, Save the Children, says the peace talks in Yemen are the last chance to prevent the nation’s dire humanitarian crisis from continuing its slide towards a famine. The warring parties in Yemen have agreed to a cessation of hostilities from April 10th and the opening of peace talks on April 18th. The charity’s warning comes on the heels of a recent UN report that said nearly half of Yemen’s provinces are on the verge of famine and 82 percent of the population has a desperate need of humanitarian assistance to get by. Save the Children says over 320,000 children face severe malnutrition in Yemen and the conflict that has raged there over the past year has exacerbated this already dire humanitarian crisis. Grant Pritchard is Director of Advocacy and Communications for the charity and is currently in Yemen. He told Susy Hodges that Yemen’s conflict with its devastating consequences for the population is a “forgotten crisis...
(Vatican Radio) The charity, Save the Children, says the peace talks in Yemen are the last chance to prevent the nation’s dire humanitarian crisis from continuing its slide towards a famine. The warring parties in Yemen have agreed to a cessation of hostilities from April 10th and the opening of peace talks on April 18th. The charity’s warning comes on the heels of a recent UN report that said nearly half of Yemen’s provinces are on the verge of famine and 82 percent of the population has a desperate need of humanitarian assistance to get by.
Save the Children says over 320,000 children face severe malnutrition in Yemen and the conflict that has raged there over the past year has exacerbated this already dire humanitarian crisis. Grant Pritchard is Director of Advocacy and Communications for the charity and is currently in Yemen. He told Susy Hodges that Yemen’s conflict with its devastating consequences for the population is a “forgotten crisis.”
Listen to the interview with Grant Pritchard of Save the Children:
The spread of hunger amongst Yemen’s population, especially its children, has been one of the most heart-breaking and horrific consequences of the nation’s war that pits Shiite Houthi rebels against the Saudi-led coalition.
“Crisis deteriorating by the day”
Pritchard noted that Yemen was a country that already had one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world before the war and said that according to UN figures the number of people considered severely food insecure or “unable to put food on the table without outside help” went from 4.3 million to more than 7 million over the past 12 months. This grave humanitarian crisis, he warned, is continuing to “deteriorate by the day.”
While welcoming the peace talks and cessation of hostilities Pritchard pointed out that the scale of human suffering in Yemen is already staggering and said economists estimate that the nation’s development has been “pushed back by a decade” as a result of this conflict. Noting there are thousands or tens of thousands of Yemen’s children “going hungry and thirsty every day, he stressed, “There’s a desperate need for peace.”
Peace talks: “last chance”
Asked about the risk of Yemen continuing its slide towards a famine situation if the peace talks were to fail, Pritchard is in no doubt that these talks represent “the last chance” in terms of preventing this from happening.
Put simply, a halt to the fighting can't come a moment too soon for Yemen's suffering population.
Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako presides over the dedication ceremony of the altar of the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Mosul, Iraq. April 5, 2024. / Credit: Fadi Dinkha/ACI MenaCNA Newsroom, Apr 18, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).When the altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chaldean Catholic Church was consecrated earlier this month in Mosul, Iraq, a former parishioner now living in the United States said she was moved to tears."My eyes were filled with tears as I watched my church and my school return to the beautiful picture engraved in my memory," said Georgena Habbaba, who used to attend the parish and study at the parish school with her brothers. Her own children studied there, too, before the family had to flee Mosul amid worsening violence in 2007. (Note: Habbaba also writes for ACI Mena, CNA's Arabic-language news partner.)"I remembered the wonderful days I spent studying at this school and praying in this church. Very close to my family's house," she t...
A bishop and a priest exchange the sign of peace during Mass. / Credit: Father Lawrence Lew, OP; photo courtesy of Martin Beek via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 18, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).The director of the Chair of Theology of the Consecrated Life at San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University in Spain, Sister Carolina Blázquez Casado, OSA, explained that the rite of peace at Mass "is not a greeting or friendly gesture."The sister explained the meaning of the rite in a video posted by the university, which is under the Archdiocese of Madrid.The sign of peace, which takes place between the recitation of the Lord's Prayer and the Fraction (breaking) of the Host, "is a prior step to be able to approach Communion with the body of Christ in a dignified manner," the Augustinian sister explained.The sign of peace is exchanged in recollection of the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 5:23-24, namely: "Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your ...
null / Credit: Jill Sauve/UnsplashWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 17, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).Arizona House Republicans blocked two attempts on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law protecting life at conception.In a near party-line 30-30 vote on Wednesday, House Democrats failed to gain a majority of votes to suspend the Legislature's rules to fast-track a so-called "abortion ban repeal" bill that would have overturned the 1864 pro-life law. Dormant since being invalidated by Roe v. Wade in 1973, the 1864 law protects all unborn life from conception and imposes prison time for those who "provide, supply, or administer" an abortion. This temporarily stalls ongoing efforts to repeal the law, which is set to go into effect in the next 37 days.Debate on the House floor was tense just before the vote as Democrats called the pro-life law "abhorrent" and "archaic." Democratic Rep. Alma Hernandez bashed Republicans, saying that "the fact that we will not even entertain a motion ...
