[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 8, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H8601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                      HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN YEMEN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, there is a heartbreaking photo 
in today's Washington Post showing two small boys, toddler-size, in a 
hospital in Yemen being treated for cholera. The story says the 
International Red Cross is now being prohibited by the Government of 
Saudi Arabia from shipping chlorine tablets into Yemen to treat this 
disease that has now affected more than 900,000 people there.
  This is a humanitarian crisis of the first magnitude and it should 
not be tolerated. Many people are dying. Most of the victims of this 
disease are women, children, and senior citizens.
  In yesterday's American Conservative magazine, Daniel Larison wrote: 
``The Saudi-led blockade of Yemen has been starving the population of 
essential goods for years, but the complete shutdown of all ports 
threatens to cause massive loss of life if it is not reversed 
immediately.''
  The head of the U.N. World Food Programme is warning that hundreds of 
thousands of children in Yemen will be ``on the brink of starvation if 
the Saudi-led coalition's blockade of air, sea, and land access lasts 
for even 2 weeks.''
  David Beasley, of the U.N., told the Associated Press, if access 
remains shut down, ``I can't imagine this will not be one of the most 
devastating humanitarian catastrophes we have seen in decades.''
  Mr. Speaker, Saudi Arabia is supposed to be an ally of ours. Those of 
us in Congress should demand, urge, or at least plead with officials in 
Saudi Arabia to end this very cruel, inhumane blockade, and allow the 
Red Cross to get crucial food, medicine, and other supplies in to these 
people before many more die needlessly.

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