What is happening in Yemen, completely aided and abetted by the United States, isn’t getting nearly enough attention.
A haunted look in the eyes of Amal Hussain, an emaciated 7-year-old lying silently on a hospital bed in northern Yemen, seemed to sum up the dire circumstances of her war-torn country.
A searing portrait of the starving girl published in The New York Times last week drew an impassioned response from readers. They expressed heartbreak. They offered money for her family. They wrote in to ask if she was getting better.
On Thursday, Amal’s family said she had died at a ragged refugee camp four miles from the hospital.
“My heart is broken,” said her mother, Mariam Ali, who wept during a phone interview. “Amal was always smiling. Now I’m worried for my other children.”
1.8 million children in Yemen are currently at risk of sharing Amal’s fate. And the United States is in the thick of it. This is happening because Saudi Arabia is at war in Yemen with US backing and using US weapons. It is as gruesome as it is preventable.
It must stop. We must refuse to allow this to happen in our name.
Amal, an innocent child, died a horrible death. Her blood is on our hands.
No more.
It must stop.
RIP, Amal. My heart is broken for you and so many other children who will share your fate in no small part because my country has lost its compass.