>> When we were in Yemen
in May of 2017,
we were the only
foreign journalists
that were able to get permission
to visit the country.
We wanted to come in
and see the consequences
of the two-plus years
of airstrikes
by the Saudi-led coalition.
You have the region's
wealthiest country
bombing the region's poorest.
And people are not seeing
what's going on.
We're talking thousands
of civilian dead.
(makes sound
of jet streaking)
Boom.
(makes streaking sound)
>> You make your way
around Yemen
and you can see the war
wherever you go.
But it's not always immediately
evident.
We were in one supermarket
in the capital, Sanaa,
and it was a fairly well-stocked
supermarket.
It looked like a lot
of supermarkets in the U.S.
We then noticed that people
were paying
not with cash, but with coupons.
>> We ran into people
who were working
and hadn't been paid
in many, many months.
The whole banking system
had pretty much collapsed,
so the cash just wasn't there.
>> That's just a small example
of how you see the war
affecting people's daily lives
everywhere you go.
It's not just the jets
you hear overhead
or the buildings
that are bombed
or the airport
that's demolished.
It's the knock-on effects
of the war on infrastructure.
When we came into town,
what struck me right away
was the amount of garbage
on the streets.
The garbage workers hadn't
been paid in eight months.
The rains came,
washing through the garbage.
Bacteria carried
into the water supply.
People drinking bad water.
And they were hit
by a cholera epidemic.
Cholera simply dehydrates you
quickly,
so that anything you ingest--
any water you drink
or food you eat--
just completely passes
through your system
and you get no nutrients
out of it.
(speaking Arabic)
>> The World Health Organization
is saying
that there are over 300,000
cases of cholera.
1,600 people have died,
many of them children,
and the numbers keep going up.
The hospital we visited,
they were already
beyond capacity.
The nurses and doctors
were suffering
from a lack of medicines
and equipment.
And they were there working
in spite of the fact
that they hadn't been paid.
>> People often ask why
the Saudis are bombing Yemen.
It's a question for the Saudis.
They'll tell you
they're fighting
against the rebel group
that's trying to take over
the country,
who are backed
by their archrival, Iran.
Yet in the time I was there,
it was hard to see, really,
what the Iranians were doing.
But the impact of the Saudi-led
coalition bombing
was very clear.
Parts of the country have been
isolated
because of bomb strikes
on bridges.
People on the ground in Yemen
are suffering.
They're caught in the crossfire
of this war.
In Hajjah,
we went to a hospital,
and I met a nurse there
who showed me pictures
she'd taken a day or two before
of a young boy
who came in severely
malnourished, and died.
>> She then was called away
to go take care
of a new severe malnutrition
patient.
A mother came in with her child.
It was a little girl
named Aaleen,
a seven-month-old baby.
(crying)
>> There were always
malnutrition cases in Yemen,
but the nurse told us
that the number of cases
had more than doubled
since the war.
And maybe an hour later,
another mother came in
with her daughter.
Ruqayyah, her name was,
was a five-year-old girl.
Ruqayyah had come
from an IDP,
an internally displaced persons'
camp
that was quite a ways away,
up near the Saudi border.
Traveled several hours
because the hospital up near her
had been bombed.
(crying)
>> And who do you blame
for the war?
>> We had to leave the hospital
before we knew what the fate
of the girls
was going to be.
I don't know
what happened to them.
All I do know
is that health workers in Yemen
say that every ten minutes,
a child dies
of preventable causes.
Americans may not be aware
of American involvement
in the war in Yemen,
but Yemenis,
in Sanaa and in northern Yemen,
certainly know where the weapons
are coming from.
Just a few days
after we arrived,
there was a huge rally
in the middle of Sanaa
called the "Say No to American
Terrorism" rally.
Thousands gathered
to protest
the arrival of President Trump
in Riyadh,
where he announced his intention
to approve a $110 billion
arms package to the Saudis.
(chanting in Arabic)
>> It was pretty evident
that we were
an American TV crew,
but absolutely no hostility
was directed at us.
There was only a sense
that our government was to blame
and ordinary Yemenis
want the world
to be aware of what's going on.
