I don't want to die next': Yemeni girl pleads against war in powerful speech
Sanaa: “26th of March 2015, almost 12 am, the night before my second term’s concert, I was really excited to attend it, but as I woke up and got dressed, mommy told me that war against Yemen has started,” says 10-year-old Yara to the camera on her mother's mobile phone. She lives in war stricken Sanna held by rebels of the Houthi militia group.
Dressed in a striking blue frock, her curly hair tied in green ribbons, Yara speaks in clear English, delivering a heart-rending speech, making it clear, that she does not want it to be her ‘turn to die’ and that the war against her country needs to stop.
“I don’t want it to be my turn to die, as a child, I want to live all my life, I want to be a doctor, I want to be an engineer, I want to grow up and be something important in this world,” she says in a video that had been striking chords across the world.
The United Nations says that at least 10,000 people have been killed since March 2015, including many civilians and Yara fears that her family could be counted in the next fatalities. She talks of how scores of people lost their jobs, her father being one of them and now, they live in fear for their lives.
In her speech, Yara also makes her contempt for the Saudi-led coalition clear, which has been fighting the Houthis to try to restore the Saudi-backed government of exiled president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi since March 2015.
“The Saudis are lying, they are lying to all the countries that are giving them money to fight against us and destroy our country. They are telling them ‘we are just helping them’, but they are not helping us, they are destroying us, helping us means destroying our schools, our factories, making children die, my families, all families are maybe gonna die,” she says.
“I wish they can stop the war against Yemen, I wish they can stop the war against Yemen, please, please, please, STOP war against Yemen, every day I get really sad, tonnes of people are dying…,” the 10-year-old breaks into tears as she appeals for an end to the war.
The 10-year-old hopes that the international community hears her voice and ends the turmoil her country is facing.
