Relentless suffering is devouring innocent people by the hour in Yemen and South Sudan while the Trump administration sends confusing signals about its intentions on providing helping hands.
United Nations relief workers are raging with frustration as they bear witness to the worst crises in human suffering since World War II. They have the will and expertise but get no proper hearing because the Trump White House and its UN representatives are too engrossed in other matters.
Whatever the divides among those who support or oppose President Donald Trump, it is hard to imagine that the American people can turn away from so much human suffering among the world’s poorest and most helpless people.
The causes of suffering may lie within those people’s fratricidal enmities and the blind cruelty of warlords and governments but it would truly be un-American to leave them simply scalding in their own stews.
No earlier US administration has been so cold-hearted about humanitarian aid. Yet this administration and Congress seem to be too busy with internecine squabbles to heed the cries of those who suffer so pitilessly.
Whatever his other opinions about international entanglements or the UN, it is unimaginable that Trump would say no to humanitarian relief for the unfortunates of foreign lands.
This is not a call for America to open its borders to refugees or unskilled migrants trying to escape poverty. The needs are only for fast deliveries of food, water and medicines. They would be enough to perform the miracles.
That requires political pressures on the warring sides to permit safe corridors for the passage of humanitarian aid and ceasefires to allow people enough respite to obtain the relief materials.
Surely, sufficient numbers of Americans could bury their hatchets to find common ground to put pressure on Congress and the Trump White House to deliver the political pressures, funding and logistics required to bring relief quickly.
UN Human Rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein reports that 21 million people in Yemen – that equals 82 percent of the population – urgently need humanitarian aid because they are already plagued by famine, food shortages and absence of medical care.
At least 4,773 civilians have been killed and 8,272 injured by the war in Yemen. That makes 13,045 civilian casualties since 26 March 2015. Blockaded ports, airports and roads have reduced food and other aid deliveries to trickles and war has prevented local food production, transport and trade.
“Two years of wanton violence and bloodshed, thousands of deaths and millions of people desperate for their basic rights to food, water, health and security – enough is enough,” Zeid lamented in desperation at the UN Human Rights Council.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was equally desperate at a UN Security Council meeting on South Sudan. “At least 7.5 million people across South Sudan – almost two thirds of the population – need humanitarian assistance. Three years of conflict have eroded livelihoods and disrupted farming, including in the country’s breadbasket.”
“One hundred thousand people are enduring famine, 1 million are on the verge of that fate, and 5.5 million may be severely food insecure by this summer,” he reported.
The blame for these dire situations lies upon the local warlords and governments who are sacrificing their people in their callous search for political and military power.
But those who are suffering still deserve compassion. Without leadership by the Trump administration too little will be done too late for them despite the readiness of various UN and other bodies to do all the legwork needed to save lives.
Only the US government has the power to put enough pressure on the warring sides, including outside supporters like Saudi Arabia in Yemen, to provide timely and safe channels for aid deliveries. The warlords are stubborn and distrustful, but they have weaker legs than of their counterparts in Syria. Getting them to cooperate may be a little easier using tough diplomacy.