Maine For Yemen

Only one member of Maine's delegation has been vocal on the US role in this conflict. Changing that is one of the key goals of Maine for Yemen. But since the US has not directly engaged in the war, there have been only a few instances when our congresspeople have had the chance to be on the record at all. The first instance was the resolution ( SJ Res. 39 ) was put forward by Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT), Rand Paul (R-KY), Al Franken (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) in September, 2016. It would have blocked sale of Abrams tanks and other military hardware to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. However, the Senate voted to table the resolution and the sales went forward. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King both voted to table the resolution. At this key moment they did not oppose arming a military accused of grave human rights abuses. The "defensive" nature of some of the weapons in question does not change the fact that they are part of Saudi Arabia's ruthlessly violent

This op-ed was published on April 7, 2017 in the Bangor Daily News. It offers a brief summary of the unfolding tragedy in Yemen, America's role in it and the questions we must pose to our leaders. We will get into more detail on each of these topics in later posts.  Jamal Mujalli al-Mashriqi, 4, who suffers from malnutrition, sits on a bed at a hospital in the northwestern city of Saada, Yemen April 4, 2017. Naif Rahma. Reuters Without most Americans noticing, our country has become deeply complicit in a humanitarian catastrophe. In Yemen, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia is ruthlessly bombing civilian infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and the bridges that bring food from seaports to the desert interior. Not only have thousands of Yemeni civilians died in these airstrikes, but millions have been pushed to the edge of famine. On the one hand, American diplomats are working admirably to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table, and the United Stat

This site is for Mainers who want action on solving Yemen's terrible humanitarian crisis, and fixing the mistaken American policies that are helping fuel it. More than 10,000 civilians have died since the war began in Yemen in 2015. Both sides - the Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition - are complicit. But the United Nations and leading human rights organizations have implicated the coalition in systematic attacks on civilian objects such as schools, hospitals, factories, markets and civilian objects with no discernible military target nearby. Worse still, the coalition has severely damaged transport infrastructure (ports, bridges, highways, mountain passes) for a country that imports 90% of its food. As a result more than 7 million people are in severe food insecurity, with the threat of famine looming in the coming months. The quiet death toll from starvation and preventable diseases is consuming tens of thousands of Yemeni lives. Destruction caused by airstrikes