DR Mahathir Mohamad issued an open letter today to the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and Yemen to end the conflict in Yemen.

The Perdana Global Peace Foundation chairman and former prime minister said Malaysians share his appeal in urging an end to the “terrible war” where thousands have died and one million Yemeni children are starving.

“Muslims feel ashamed. Please stop this senseless slaughter,” Dr Mahathir said.

The Saudi-led coalition has refused to lift its blockade of Yemen, shutting down its sea and air ports as well as borders on November 6 in response to a missile attack by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels near Riyadh.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio wrote to the Saudi ambassador yesterday to ask for an end to the blockade which he said “is already reversing the impact of humanitarian efforts”, reports AFP.

“The secretary-general is very much disappointed that we have not seen a lifting of the blockade,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. 

Guterres and his top aid officials are “heartbroken at the scenes we are seeing from Yemen and the risk of continued suffering of the Yemeni people”, Dujarric added.

“This is a man-made crisis,” said Dujarric, adding that Guterres had called it a “stupid war”.

The United Nations has listed Yemen as the world’s number one humanitarian crisis, with 17 million people in need of food, seven million of whom are at risk of famine. 

Yemen is also battling one of the world’s worst outbreaks of cholera, that has left nearly one million people ill and killed 2,200 people. – November 17, 2017.