A letter from the Scholars and Academics of Southern Arabia (Aden)

May 21, 2015

We are writing on behalf of the women, children, elderly, the sick and the wounded in the southern Yemeni governorates–Aden, Lahij, Abyan, Al Dahle and Shabwah–who have been under siege and isolated from the humanitarian relief efforts in Yemen. We have been facing a longstanding severe shortage in food, medicines and supplies, which as of today, have not been relieved by the agencies in Sana’a. Therefore, we request for our humanitarian aid to be delivered directly to the appointed authorities in that region, as they will be more accountable to the interests and needs of their beneficiaries.

We appreciate your humanitarian efforts for the southern Yemenis, but we are surprised that you continue to insist on delivering the majority of our apportioned aid to authorities who are not local to those regions. Your logistics continues to center Sana’a as the relief gateway for all regions in Yemen, a “ rigidity of habit” which has resulted in unanticipated consequences–particularly a humanitarian disaster in the south.

To the authorities in Sana’a, we are second class citizens. For three decades now, we have been oppressed, suppressed, repressed and depressed– politically, economically and socially. For us, this conflict has just been the latest in a string of tragedies, an acute-on-chronic crisis: a catastrophe amid histories of widespread poverty, predatory government, and underdeveloped health infrastructure. Yet, aid agencies continue to entrust our desperately needed relief to an institution, which has never been accountable to the citizens of the region that was once a country of its own–South Yemen.

Though we have managed to survive a history of "structural violence," we have reached a point where we will not survive if Sana’a continues to be entrusted with our relief. We are living in a critical time where every hour counts: infants have died while waiting for a bottle of milk; pregnant mothers who are not able to be transported to health facilities have died while we wait for fuel; and the wounded as well as the chronically ill are dying as we wait for medicine and supplies to be delivered.

Therefore, we request for all international aid agencies who are operating in Yemen to contact the health and logistics authority who are local to that region and wish to lead the humanitarian efforts there:

Dr. AbdulNasser Ahmed Alwali
Chairman of the Higher Medical Committee in Aden 
+967733791544
al_waly44@hotmail.com

Fatema Saeed Alimodi
Public Relief Representative
 +967777697254

And our representatives in the United States are also available to help facilitate this process:

Mohamed S. Alsalahi, MD., M.P.H.
Director of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Rochester General Health System at Newark-Wayne Office: 315-359-2178
Cell: 440-773-7690
AlsalahiMD@me.com

Omran Alsalahi
MD Candidate at Eastern Virginia Medical School M.S. in Biomedical Sciences
Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine
Cell: 330-221-0063
alsalaoh@evms.edu

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Yours Respectfully,
The Scholars and Academics from Southern Arabia (Aden)

This letter was sent to:

• Johannes Van Der Klaau, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen (UNOCH)*
• Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General 
• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), HeadQuarters in Geneva
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
• United State Agency for International Development (USAID)
• MSF (Doctors Without Borders)
• United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Amnesty International
• Aljazeera Media Network
• The Obama Administration

* See response: http://www.hmpca.com/2015/05/letter-to-dr-abdulnasser.html