Starving Yemen

Download Subtitles

Transcript

:00:00. > :00:00.conflict is starvation. We travelled to remote areas around a port city

:00:00. > :00:00.and found children dying of hunger. This film contains scenes of a

:00:00. > :00:15.distressing nature. We follow one of the few doctors

:00:16. > :00:23.still working in this remote area. Case after case, we see children

:00:24. > :00:28.dying from starvation. What we witness is a

:00:29. > :00:34.humanitarian catastrophe. Hodeda, once home to one

:00:35. > :00:36.of Yemen's busiest ports. Hodeda, once home to one

:00:37. > :01:09.of Yemen's busiest ports. Yet, thousands have

:01:10. > :01:30.fled here for refuge. Hardly any aid agencies

:01:31. > :01:35.can operate here. I'm on my way to meet one of the few

:01:36. > :01:44.doctors still working in Hodeda. This woman has worked here for 20

:01:45. > :01:46.years. But the last two years

:01:47. > :01:52.have been the hardest. She has lived through a war

:01:53. > :01:55.between a coalition of countries led by neighbouring Saudi

:01:56. > :01:58.Arabia, and a rebel group, called Her family has fled the war

:01:59. > :02:27.to Jordan, so she is on her own. That first night, a ceasefire

:02:28. > :02:30.which has held for We can hear Saudi coalition

:02:31. > :02:37.aeroplanes flying overhead. Everyone in the house

:02:38. > :02:42.is really nervous. We know it has hit twice already

:02:43. > :02:46.over there, in the direction We're waiting to see

:02:47. > :02:50.if it is going to hit again. The Saudi-led coalition is trying

:02:51. > :02:55.to push out Houthi rebels, who took over Hodeda

:02:56. > :02:57.and most of northern Yemen The next morning, the doctor

:02:58. > :03:11.uses her own savings to buy food and She is heading 100 kilometres out

:03:12. > :03:53.of Hodeda to a remote village. As her helper distributes food,

:03:54. > :04:17.she checks for the sickest children. She takes me to a boy

:04:18. > :04:20.who is suffering from severe, Abdul Rahman is an

:04:21. > :04:27.18-month-old toddler. He weighs as much as

:04:28. > :04:30.a six-month-old baby. Born at the time the bombing

:04:31. > :04:32.started, his growth Lactose intolerant,

:04:33. > :05:03.he can't digest normal milk. Before the war, the type

:05:04. > :05:06.of milk his body needs was widely

:05:07. > :05:08.available on the market. The doctor promises she will do

:05:09. > :06:05.everything she can to find All they can do is an ancient

:06:06. > :06:24.ritual in the graveyard. Amidst the boy's dead relatives,

:06:25. > :06:28.his parents pray their son will get better and,

:06:29. > :06:42.ultimately, cheat death. But the war has left Yemen

:06:43. > :07:05.with a severe fuel shortage. This fruit farm used

:07:06. > :07:07.to be one of the biggest But the lack of fuel made

:07:08. > :07:29.distribution impossible. 18 months of economic

:07:30. > :07:31.devastation and bombing across Yemen has forced nearly

:07:32. > :07:43.3 million people from their homes. The doctor brings the most

:07:44. > :07:45.vulnerable children The wards are overwhelmed

:07:46. > :07:57.with patients. But the case of this eight-year-old

:07:58. > :08:00.boy is shocking. His parents say that before the war

:08:01. > :08:29.they survived as fishermen. Now their boats are at risk

:08:30. > :08:32.of being bombed by coalition jets, leaving them with

:08:33. > :08:54.almost nothing to eat. He used to be able to play

:08:55. > :09:02.with his brothers and sisters. His mother tells me,

:09:03. > :09:05.although he is alive, it is as if he The United Nations warn that

:09:06. > :09:30.malnutrition has skyrocketed. There are now hundreds of thousands

:09:31. > :09:35.of children suffering Much of the country's

:09:36. > :09:51.food used to arrive here The manager shows me

:09:52. > :10:14.the bomb damage. The port was bombed

:10:15. > :10:18.by the Saudi coalition. A major report by human rights

:10:19. > :10:20.groups say coalition air strikes have hit over

:10:21. > :10:24.3000 non-military sites. There are calls for a halt

:10:25. > :10:29.to all arms exports in Saudi Arabia. Most of the bombs sold

:10:30. > :10:32.to Saudi Arabia come from the United In a statement, the Saudi Government

:10:33. > :10:38.denied deliberately targeting The Saudi coalition has also imposed

:10:39. > :10:56.an aerial and naval blockade, controlling all imports

:10:57. > :10:58.to the country. They say they are stopping

:10:59. > :11:01.the Houthis and their allies from rearming and are providing

:11:02. > :11:03.significant humanitarian assistance The manager offers to take us

:11:04. > :11:11.on a boat and show us the queues of We have just made it

:11:12. > :11:18.to the first row of ships that are waiting for space

:11:19. > :11:21.at the Hodeda port to be off-loaded. I've been told one of them that's

:11:22. > :11:25.carrying fuel for Yemen has been waiting there for over five months

:11:26. > :11:28.and may have to wait even longer, until they find space

:11:29. > :11:33.for it at the port. The port itself is under the control

:11:34. > :11:36.of the Houthi rebels Some of the fuel that the coalition

:11:37. > :11:41.lets into Hodeda is Off-camera, I hear

:11:42. > :11:47.accusations that the Houthis are grabbing it and selling it

:11:48. > :11:54.on the black market. She takes us through a road filled

:11:55. > :12:01.with petrol stations. The black market is the most

:12:02. > :12:14.reliable place to buy fuel. Whoever is profiting,

:12:15. > :12:21.a lack of fuel is one of the main reasons vital food and aid supplies

:12:22. > :12:23.aren't reaching those Some goods are simply

:12:24. > :12:49.impossible to find. The doctor is on her way

:12:50. > :12:52.to see Abdul Rahman. She is still trying to get

:12:53. > :15:28.his lactose-free milk. It's not just remote villages that

:15:29. > :15:31.are suffering from shortages. Even the city's main

:15:32. > :15:34.hospital is missing He's four years old and his family

:15:35. > :15:45.brought him here after he developed His mother couldn't bear to come

:15:46. > :16:12.to the hospital, so his There's such a heartbreaking sense

:16:13. > :16:33.of helplessness here. He fell ill with a fever

:16:34. > :16:37.and diarrhoea and his family rushed him to the nearby

:16:38. > :16:40.hospital in the village. They sent him

:16:41. > :16:43.straightaway to the city. His grandfather borrowed money

:16:44. > :16:45.from the neighbours and rushed him

:16:46. > :16:47.to the hospital here in the city, only to find out they don't

:16:48. > :16:54.have the medicines to save him. She takes me to the hospital's

:16:55. > :17:30.Malnutrition Ward. The UN says health facilities are

:17:31. > :17:33.being systematically targeted. According to Medicins

:17:34. > :17:34.Sans Frontieres, three of their hospitals have been bombed

:17:35. > :17:38.by the Saudi-led coalition. Across the country,

:17:39. > :17:41.600 have closed down. Both sides have been accused

:17:42. > :17:58.of targeting civilian facilities. Suddenly, there is commotion

:17:59. > :18:04.and doctors rushed to the boy's bed. We've just found out the situation

:18:05. > :18:49.has deteriorated drastically. Because they didn't have his

:18:50. > :19:00.medicine, he passed away. Through her own contacts,

:19:01. > :20:55.and sheer perseverance, she has been able to get

:20:56. > :20:59.Abdul Rahman's milk from across the border

:21:00. > :21:24.in Saudi Arabia. She has enough milk to last

:21:25. > :22:01.Abdul Rahman for three months. Though she was able

:22:02. > :22:05.to save a child's life, more than a million other

:22:06. > :22:16.children continue to starve. Unless something is done

:22:17. > :22:19.to end their suffering, the country could lose

:22:20. > :22:31.an entire generation.