The richest country in the Arab region wasted no time quoting their American arms dealers when they declared an end to their bombing campaign on the poorest Arab country last month.
‘Mission Accomplished,’ declared a Saudi newspaper on April 22 after Riyadh announced the end of a month-long air campaign on Yemen. Hours later, the strikes resumed. It’s hard to assess which was more ironic: Quoting a banner on a U.S. warship where then-president George W. Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq in 2003 — or the fact that Riyadh continued to drop cluster bombs – while simultaneously declaring a reconstruction effort named ‘Operation Renewal of Hope’?
The premature declaration of the end of ‘Operation Decisive Storm’ was only one of many contradictory statements put out by the Saudi-led coalition that killed at least 1,244 people, injured 5,044 and more than 100,000 homeless.
Envisage this in a country where half of its 26 million population were already malnourished before the air campaign. Aid agencies report that the Saudi air and sea blockade is preventing Yemen from importing food, hospitals are shutting down due to a lack of fuel for generators, and car owners are being asked to help move the sick and injured.
In short: Yemen is in the midst of a humanitarian disaster. Worse still, Canadian media coverage and public interest has been dismal.
For the sake of understanding what actually happened, and why it matters, let’s deconstruct the contrived propaganda produced by Saudi Arabia and its allies: