IT is, by all means, a grim figure. According to the World Health Organisation, the number of cholera cases in war-torn Yemen has crossed half a million. Some 2,000 people have died due to the highly contagious waterborne disease since an outbreak was reported in April. This is only one of the many unfortunate statistics coming out of Yemen, a country that has been ripped apart by a war now in its third year. The Yemeni people — amongst the poorest in the Arab world — have to face bombings as well as starvation as the infrastructure in their country lies in a state of shambles. While a power struggle had long been brewing between the Houthi rebels — who captured the capital Sana’a in late 2014 — and their local opponents, the situation was exacerbated when Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015. Since then, Yemen’s condition has gone from bad to worse, with none of the belligerents willing to budge. The Yemeni people have had to bear the brunt of these power struggles, and the cholera epidemic is only the latest of their multiple miseries. As the WHO chief observed, “thousands of people are sick, but there are not enough hospitals, not enough medicines, not enough clean water. ...”

Ideally, all sides involved in the Yemeni conflict should agree to put down their guns and negotiate a political solution for the sake of the country’s beleaguered population. Some Arab media have reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman — the power behind the throne and architect of the Yemen war — wants to exit from the quagmire. We hope such reports are true; if this is indeed the case, back-channel efforts to talk to the Houthis should be initiated so that the war can be wound down and a power-sharing agreement reached. Should the conflict grind on, the human catastrophe that is painfully unfolding in Yemen will only get worse and a whole generation of Yemenis will be confronted with more death and destruction.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2017