NOVANEWS
Members of the Bay Area’s Yemeni community protest Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s visit to San Francisco and demand Saudi Arabia cease bombing Yemen. [Staff Photo Phil Pasquini]
Waging Peace
Members of Northern California’s Yemeni community and their supporters protested outside San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel on March 28 prior to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s visit to the Bay Area to meet with CEOs of Silicon Valley’s high-tech companies.
“Stop the War on Yemen,” the crowd outside the posh hotel chanted, calling on the Saudi crown prince to stop bombing Yemeni civilians.
Bin Salman, known by his initials MbS, is also Saudi Arabia’s defense minister and oversees all of its military forces. Since March 2015 he has served as the commander of the international coalition in the “Decisive Storm” mission in Yemen. With U.S. support, the coalition has continually bombed the impoverished country, killing more than 5,000 civilians, according to the U.N., and leaving thousands more injured and displaced from their homes. Many of the airstrikes were carried out in violation of laws that prohibit deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians, Human Rights Watch has charged.
In addition, Yemen’s health ministry estimates that more than 10,000 of the country’s 29.5 million residents have died from lack of desperately needed medical care, food and supplies since August 2016. And, according to the World Health Organization, there are currently more than 1,029,700 cases of cholera in Yemen.
—Elaine Pasquin
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