Saudis Are Using Famine as a Weapon of War in Yemen

Famine is part of an overall strategy of economic warfare

The New York Times has a new article on the growing famine across Yemen. The piece details the difficulty, and at times impossibility, of getting food in parts of Yemen. This is presented in the context of a Saudi-led, US-backed war in Yemen that has been killing thousands of civilians.

Citing aid experts and UN officials, the report reveals this is not just happenstance. Rather, it reveals the famine as a deliberate part of the Saudi war strategy, a way of grinding Yemen’s always struggling economy to a halt, by making sure too many people are starving.

The article provides an overall look at the economic disaster several years of war and Saudi policy have brought to Yemen. While it is a bit light on details of American involvement in the war, it still provides a lot of previously unreported details.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.