The Heat: Yemen crisis

The Heat

FILE – In this Saturday, July 1, 2017, file photo, a man is treated for suspected cholera infection at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. Since April, a cholera epidemic has ravaged the country with around 400,000 suspected cases and over 1,800 deaths. The rainy season underway threatens to worsen the situation and the number of cholera cases is expected to double by the end of the year, according to ICRC. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

The war in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula, has been going on now since March 2015.

So far over 10,000 people have died in the conflict that has a Saudi-led coalition battling a Shiite rebel group called the Houthis.

The Saudis intervened on the side of Yemen’s internationally recognized government after the Houthi rebels, reportedly backed by Iran, seized the capital, Sana’a.

Now the country is fighting a massive cholera outbreak and millions are also threatened by a looming famine. The United Nations has called it the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

For the current state of Yemen, CGTN’s Adel El Mahrouky reports from Cairo.
Follow Adel ELMahrouky on Twitter @AdelMahrouky

Tonight’s panel has the latest on the crisis and its symptoms:

  • Sama’a Al-Hamdani, a Yemeni political affairs commentator
  • Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, He is a columnist for the Saudi daily newspaper, AlYaum and The Arab News
  • Seyed Hossein Mousavian, former Iranian diplomat is a Middle East expert at Princeton University
  • Radhya Almutawakel, president of the Mwatana Organization for Human Rights that monitors events in Yemen