Reader's Blog: Ireland do little to help with famine in Yemen
Also in 1847, Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I personally offered £10,000 in aid to Ireland, but British diplomats advised him that it would be offensive to offer more than Queen Victoria, who had only donated £2,000.
It was suggested that he should donate £1,000.
Genuine humanitarian efforts recognise no ethnic or religious divides.
Why then is Ireland doing so little to address the suffering of the Yemeni people who are undergoing a similar famine caused by foreign aggressors?
Up to 85,000 children under-five have starved to death in Yemen, yet Ireland and the international community have stood idly by and continue to support oil-rich Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) who are perpetrating violence and famine on the Yemeni people.
In February the UN Security Council renewed sanctions against Yemen exacerbating the famine, which is further exacerbated by a blockade enforced by Saudi Arabia and UAE, yet no sanctions have been imposed on main perpetrators, Saudi Arabia and UAR.
Houthi rebels in Yemen are defending their people against internal corruption and external aggression, yet because they are Shia Muslims they are being attacked by their more powerful Sunni Muslim neighbours.
The answer as to why the Irish Government is doing so little to help starving Yemeni people is probably that we do a lot of trade with Saudi Arabia and UAE and none with Yemen.
Ireland is also complicit in these famine deaths by allowing US military to resupply Saudi munitions through Shannon airport.
