Angelina Jolie arrives in Yemen to aid refugees
Actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie has arrived in Aden, Yemen, in an effort to aid refugees from the country's ongoing civil war, she and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced Saturday. Jolie on social media called for humanitarian assistance to both Yemen and Ukraine as Russia continues with its invasion of the latter.
"As we continue to watch the horrors unfolding in Ukraine, and call for an immediate end to the conflict and humanitarian access, I'm here in Yemen to support people who also desperately need peace," the actress and filmmaker stated in an Instagram video post.
Jolie also used the current crisis in Ukraine to call for renewed attention on the civilian victims in Yemen.
"This week a million people were forced to flee the horrific war in Ukraine. If we learn anything from this shocking situation, it is that we cannot be selective about who deserves support and whose rights we defend," she wrote. "Everyone deserves the same compassion. The lives of civilian victims of conflict everywhere are of equal
value. After seven years of war, the people of Yemen also need protection, support, and above all, peace."
Jolie said the situation in Yemen is "one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with one civilian killed or injured every hour in 2022." She is hoping to draw attention again to the people of Yemen who are still suffering from the seven-year conflict.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, Jolie will be visiting Yemeni families, including displaced families and refugees, to hear directly from them about how the conflict has drastically impacted their lives.
"I will do my best to communicate from the ground as the days unfold," Jolie stated in the post. "An economy devastated by war, and over 20 million Yemenis depending on humanitarian assistance to survive."
In 2011, Jolie visited west Mosul less than a year after the city was liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) forces. The trip marked her 61st mission and fifth visit to Iraq with the UN refugee agency since 2001, according to a UNHCR release.
