 Hello and welcome to Daily Debrief brought to you by People's Despair, Cham Pragya. In October, Yemen's government and Houthi rebels in the North failed to renew a true sign in April. UNICEF now reports that 62 children have been killed or injured since then. It has urgently called to renew the truth which reduced the intensity of the violence. Many independent reports have said such deaths and injuries are an extreme form of Yemen's humanitarian crisis. Millions in Yemen need the world's attention and billions in aid. Abdul from People's Despair brings us more details of the UNICEF report and the chances for peace in the region. Abdul, hi. Good to have you on the show again. Abdul, we've discussed Yemen on our show many times before. What does the new UNICEF report say? What are the problems people face in Yemen? Well, UNICEF head was in Yemen for a trip and after the trip she basically came out with a report in which she was basically narrating what is the condition on the ground. The basic data is already there of course that there are around 2.2 million Yemenis children out of around 13-14 million which are basically on the words of starvation and they are basically because of the starvation because of the malnutrition they are not in a condition to face the kind of attack of the various diseases and that can basically be fatal. Apart from that she also mentioned that there is a severe lack of vaccination, the regular vaccination which most of the children around the world have been going through. So they have been affected due to the COVID also but because of the war in Yemen a large number of children have been basically deprived of their regular vaccination. So their immunization is basically V and that makes them further susceptible to different kinds of diseases which can ultimately lead to death and even during the time of the ceasefire the death of children did not decrease though it decreased but the decrease was not substantial and particularly after the ceasefire was broken in October since then more than 60 children have further died. So the overall condition when it comes to the on the level of the human suffering in Yemen is quite well known but when we talk about the children the suffering becomes many fold more and this basically this is affecting the future generations of the country and it seems that the effect of the war will continue for many generations to come. That's basically the zist of the report of Catherine Russell which was presented yesterday. Abdul now the thing is that you know the death of children a very stark reminder of the crisis in Yemen but you know everything seems to hinge according to the UNICEF report on peace. What are the chances of that taking place? Well as we said earlier there was a rare ceasefire which was agreed in April this year which was extended twice it was for two months and it was extended twice it means that for six months there was some kind of ceasefire in Yemen which was rare because in last seven years we have not seen we have never we never saw such a duration a long duration in which there was no active hostilities at least the declared formal hostilities but since then the ceasefire has broken down and primarily the responsibility for that is basically the UN which basically for six months there was a period in which it could have forced the parties could have convinced the parties to agree for a long term a ceasefire it failed to do so and basically it seems that the UN failed to address that its failure is primarily rooted in the idea in the fact sorry that the UN failed to address the basic demands which were raised by the hooties the the affected parties primarily because the international coalition led by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have other aggressors in in Yemen and the UN failed to convince them to lift the blockade the blockade which is a comprehensive blockade nothing can reach Yemen through sea through air through land without the permission of the Saudi-led coalition its illegal act and despite the fact that this illegal it has it is causing a massive humanitarian suffering in Yemen well known this is a well known fact UN failed to convince the Saudi-led coalition to lift the blockade completely and that was the basic reason that the ceasefire broke down in October and ever since then there has been no serious attempt taken by the UN to address this basic demand so I think until this basic demand is addressed the the see the blockade is lifted there is very rare possibility very very dim possibility that there will there there will be long term ceasefire or there will be a talk to basically address the conflicting issues between both between the parties so the first priority should be to basically convince Saudi-led coalition to end its illegal blockade on on Yemen right Abdul since we have another couple of minutes left I thought I'd ask you know small follow-up question now there's also the UNICEF report also tries to bring attention to the fact that the Yemen conflict the conflict in Yemen is simply ignored and that there will be a large amount large sums of money are required from the world to actually you know bring some sort of relief to people can you talk about that as well well UNICEF report talks about the lack of funds when we talk about the world is ignoring it primarily because whatever targets the international agencies the UN agencies are setting for the required funds to provide the humanitarian aid through buying food medicine and other essential commodities the the the amount it fixes it needs basically that it is never able to get it for various reasons in last three four years we can understand there was a covid situation which basically hampered the flow to flow of aid to Yemen and other war affected conflict affected reasons but this is not only limited to the covid period we have seen that since last seven years whenever the UN has given a call there has always been a lack of a fund for the prime reason behind that is the war Saudi-led war is supported by countries which are also the primary donors in in most of these situations so the lack of fund in Yemen is basically indicates towards a more structural reason which basically causes the war and conflict in the world and so the the the occasional aid which which is provided by the countries which themselves are the aggressors in many of the cases which basically becomes a stopgap arrangement and and and it is affected when they themselves are the party of the world so that need to be addressed and so I think that is the basic reason basic basic issue here right Abdul thanks a lot for joining us with that update 150 members of political parties trade unions women's groups community organizations and social movements from West Africa are meeting in Winneba Ghanah they've been sharing the demands and aspirations of the region's people the first West African people for a new world conference is all about why the region is underdeveloped and how to mobilize people to control their own destiny Prashant from People's Dispatch is at the conference and he joined us for a brief discussion okay Prashant thanks for joining us from pretty far away from Delhi right now so can you just begin by laying out the groundwork the context of this conference why people are there right of course Pragya the conference just concluded on Sunday and it's a very interesting conference because you had people from people's movements political parties trade unions women's organizations from across West Africa gathering to sort of have a can shared analysis of what is happening in the region right now to sort of devise joint strategies for working together to sort of see how they can pool in their resources and their strength together and present you know a plan of action so to speak so the direct result of this of course was the formation of what is being called the West African People's Organization or WAPO but of course there's a lot of work that has gone into it but I'll just we can come to that a bit later but I'll just explain the context in which this has happened which is that you know West Africa right now is in the center of multiple crises the most obvious one of course being the fact that whether you call it a crisis an opportunity is a different thing but the fact that there is there seems to be a large-scale resistance to imperialism to foreign intervention especially a very strong anti-French sentiment that is prevailing in many parts of what you would call Francophone Africa so we know that there have been coups that have taken place in Mali in Burkina Faso in Guinea and in many of these by of course army or officers but these military hundas seem to be riding on a wave of popular discontent with the French you know the French came to this region saying that they were here to combat Islamist insurgency now we do know that Islamist insurgency was fuelled first of all by the NATO destruction of Libya but even then despite their coming despite them bringing soldiers to the region there's very been very little success now many parts of various countries still under the effective control of such groups and the people increasingly angry with the French for making these claims coming here and then it does seem like a lot of it has to do with the country's resources as well so there's been this move and Mali has now ejected the French the strong sentiment in other countries as well so this is one crisis there's also a massive economic crisis you don't know for instance in Ghana where the conference was held has been undergoing a very difficult time economically it has had it's taken its 18th package with the IMF and you know what IMF packages bring we've talked a lot about it on this show there are environmental crises that are pretty bad that are quite serious in this part of the region as well so you know there's a series of crises and in just to sort of mention imperialism a bit more there's also the increasing understanding that the the US the British the Germans the French all of them have some military presence so in fact I think one of the people I spoke to pointed out that except for the Italians all major European powers are directly militarily present in North Africa and West Africa and you know the his analysis of course was that now it seems that colonialism by force seems to have returned to the continent in some form so this is the context in which this conference was held Prashant what is the sort of plan of action that people are coming up with what are the demands what are the expectations here right I think so there are multiple aspects to consider of course one is that there is a rejection of the presence of these kind of foreign military forces that I talked about and you know so there is an understanding that this this is actually and also of course of various Islamism jihadi elements many of whom have been imported from West Asia in fact the organizations the region directly blame these imperialist powers for the insurgency so that's one thing that has been that's been very clear on everyone's minds there is you know an understanding that say among the the government governments of many of these countries have been acting as proxies in some senses for the imperialist powers you know and have it pretty much you know for instance they talk of the echo was which is the block of West African state sending military you know asking making a demand for the return of direct democracy etc etc I may you know even talking about a military force so all these kind of issues are there are very cause a lot of concern among the people the movement interesting these groups interestingly have expressed very firm solidarity with struggles with the people of Cuba Palestine western Sahara for instance which itself is very important because internationalism seems to be a very powerful theme among all the organizations which gathered in Ghana to talk about many of these issues there is the understanding of intensifying popular struggles of bringing together more people of presenting alternatives which are radical of presenting alternatives which improve people's lives so all of these are also actually key parts of the you know presentation and the discussions that are taking place the final documents are still yet to be out of course but these are some of the important themes that are you know are very strong in the minds of the people there's been a call for for instance a common currency as well which in some senses goes against the French CFA you know which is actually a huge sore point for many people in the region so very important you know conference in that sense in the sense that there's been this process among organizations in Africa of building unity of bringing together coming bringing together common demands many of these organizations previously working in their countries but now the attempt is to move beyond just country specific or sectoral say understandings and then see if it could be a more regional understanding and regional strategies with of course every country having its own specific context so I think these are some of the interesting aspects from the conference that took place and I think in the West Africa people's African people's organization in the coming months and years is trying to sort of expand its contacts to across the region as well you know have dialogue with more organizations of this sort and it's an interesting initiative because you know we often hear only about groups of countries like G20 or you know ECOAS or or Shanghai Cooperation Organization breaks all of them have their own of course important some of them are more progressive some of them are outright dangerous to the world but it's always interesting to see when people's movements also come together with a very similar agenda of how to present an alternative to what you know capitalism and the West's militarism is imposing on the region. Right Prashant thanks a lot for joining us. Will Morocco go the whole way at the FIFA World Cup? Moroccans are hopeful but face France next and that's no pushover. There's Argentina and Croatia to contend with as well the first Arab nation in the finals is bound to make the news but we asked Sadhante who is in Qatar how realistic its chances are. Thanks for joining us Sadhante. Sadhante as we're aging closer and closer to the final looks like Morocco has reached further than many would have thought it would. Yeah everyone I think except the Moroccans themselves the line I've been hearing Pagya on the streets when talking to Moroccan fans is why not you know so anytime you ask them anything can you win the next game why not can you beat France why not can you win the World Cup why not so it's been that kind of a tournament and I have to say if there's one person who if there were an award for you know like there is the most valuable player of the tournament or the most valuable person in general in the tournament it would go to Walid Regrawi who is the coach of the Moroccan team he has been absolutely phenomenal whether it is in terms of because he came in you know very very not not so long ago only about 80 days before the tournament started okay and like we were talking earlier a lot of these players who are you know from the diaspora were born outside of Morocco and had had different kinds of fights with the football federation as well as the media in Morocco in the past he has brought them back into the team and and instill this kind of real I mean I know we say it a lot and of course if it is a team sport so you have to have a collective spirit but Morocco have displayed that above and beyond I think any other team with the exception of perhaps France in this tournament and then you know it's like the decolonize the world tour like someone was calling it they've been Spain first they've been Portugal after that and next up is France who also have a you know interesting colonial relationship with Morocco but they're not quite through yet right we can't just write off the next they're not through at all they play the semi-final against France and it's going to be extremely extremely difficult for them by no means should we assume that Morocco are going to win this game France are the overwhelming favorites they've shown that at this tournament they are they are the defending champions world champions and they are the best team in this tournament it has to be said from all perspectives the most balanced the most put together the most tactically sound but there's a little bit of a pattern you know in 1998 the World Cup was held in France France won it but as far as these so-called underdog teams are concerned in 2002 Japan and Korea co-hosted the event and then and they became made in probable runs beating Italy and all of that making it to the semi-finals in 2010 Ghana came very close the World Cup was held in South Africa and then this time it's the first World Cup in this region Mina the Middle East and North Africa Margaret and you know Morocco have gone and done it and a lot of it has to also go down to being of course familiar in the surroundings and all of that with the weather with the food all of those things but also with the massive amount of support that they're getting both on the ground as well as in the stadiums that's the kind of spirit there is here on the streets everyone is in Morocco colors now it's like everyone's adopted nation you know we found and we found across this part of the world and even beyond it means a great deal to to I think all Muslim people who play this sport and who have had a trouble relationship with it because there are a large number of top top professionals who are of the Islamic faith and yet somehow it's always considered some kind of a hurdle or a challenge to them becoming their best cells as athletes not something that actually aids in the process or is just a cultural factor and doesn't have any impact at all either ways you know it's always been looked at in a certain way so we've been seeing reports over the past few days of kids in London and Belgium and Spain and you know and how they look at themselves and their cultural identity and how this Moroccan team is kind of redefining that relationship in the context of football we can't so forget sedan that this is despite all the years gone by it's till a post 9 11 world absolutely very much so and that those divides are are very clear so yeah it is a factor and it and hopefully this is one of the things that you know we keep saying football it can be this vehicle for change and to change attitudes and all of that and with all the negativity and the issues around the Qatar World Cup which will not go away for some time and we will get back into discussing some of those in the next couple of days while while the news cycle is still hot and we still have some space to talk about it but at the same time we should be looking at some potential positives at least and this is definitely one of them and it's also an immensely likable team you know they have star players and all of that but but but no superstars and it's just been like a straight up practically very solid technically very good but but like just the fight in the heart that this team has shown to get to where they have I think they believe they can go one step further if not all the way it's a great thanks for joining us and that's all we have for you today thank you for watching daily debrief we look forward to seeing you again tomorrow you will find more such stories on our website peoplesdispatch.org and you can find us on facebook twitter and instagram