I have an article in the latest issue of Plough in which I explain the causes of the man-made famine in Yemen. I concluded with these lines:

Just as famine has political causes, it can have a political remedy. Unfortunately, these atrocious famines have not generated the attention or interest worldwide that other mass atrocities receive. The countries affected by famine are not covered in the news media very often. When there is coverage, it seems to have little or no effect on policymakers and the public. There is a real danger of famine making a comeback in many countries where outside governments are either complicit in causing mass starvation or have no interest in staving off disaster. After nearly succeeding in eliminating famine entirely, the world seems mostly oblivious to its horrendous return.

I am grateful to Plough for asking me to contribute this article. Famine in Yemen does not receive the attention that it should, and every extra bit of coverage that it receives may help. I also encourage everyone to look at the entire issue. My argument about who is responsible for mass starvation in Yemen will be familiar to regular readers, but it bears repeating that modern famines are man-made catastrophes that do not have to happen and could be prevented. They are the result of political and military decisions taken by governments without regard for the lives of the civilian population, and in this case those decisions have been deliberately targeting the population for starvation to achieve Saudi coalition goals. Yemenis are not just starving, they are being starved. The governments responsible for starving them have the full support of the U.S., and so our government is partly responsible for what is being done to these people and has it within its power to rein in the governments that are killing them with hunger. We don’t usually think of these famines in terms of mass atrocities, but that is what they are and that is how they need to be understood. The world has been watching one of these atrocities unfold before our eyes for the last four years, and so far we have failed to put a stop to it. That has to change this year, and we need to work to make sure that it does.