The international community cannot be allowed to forget about Yemen

The world must remain engaged, provide humanitarian aid to desperate civilian victims, and press all sides diplomatically for a permanent peace, writes Borzou Daragahi

The war is often described as a stalemate, but the main problem is that the Houthis are winning (AP)

It is a cruel war. Blockades and sieges inflict untold harm on ordinary people. A majority struggle to meet the food needs of their families. At least half a million children under the age of five are suffering from extreme malnutrition. Breakouts of diseases like cholera are rampant. The fragile economy has long since collapsed.

Last Sunday marked the eighth anniversary of Yemen’s harrowing civil war – one of the worst armed conflicts in recent history, particularly for civilians. Hopes that the complicated conflict will peter out after so many years, so much misery, and at least 15,000 deaths, are at a high point.

Too high, in fact; and there is a grave danger that what has been described frequently as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis will continue, and that it will slide even further down an already crowded global agenda.