At Least 17 Die in Yemen Flash Floods

Yemenis struggling to survive through five years of bloody conflict learned on Wednesday that when it rains, it literally pours, as flash floods raging through the northern Marib region killed at least 17 and displaced hundreds of others. Recent massive storms around the Gulf of Aden have hit the capital, Sanaa, and other major cities, and have raised concerns of a large 40-year-old dam collapsing, threatening the lives of hundreds more. The suffering country has been the victim of a five-year civil war between the Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi-led Yemeni government and the primarily Shi’ite Houthi rebels, made worse by the intervention of global powers such as Iran and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition. In 2018, the United Nations tabbed the conflict as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today and warned that 13 million civilians in Yemen were in danger of starvation. An estimated 185,000 people have died in the war and resulting famine.