Ahead of Thanksgiving, former SC governor calls on world to save starving children

As Americans get ready to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, former S.C. Gov. David Beasley is worried about more than 100,000 children who don’t have anything to eat at all.

Beasley, now the head of the World Food Program, appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday to highlight the plight of children caught in the middle of a war in the Middle Eastern nation of Yemen that leave them at risk of starvation.

“We're on the brink of famine,” Beasley told reporter Scott Pelley. “If we don't receive the monies that we need in the next few months, I would say 125,000 little girls and boys will die.”

In 2015, a rebel group known as the Houthis overthrew Yemen’s government, leading to an intervention by the government’s allies in Saudi Arabia. Since then, the Saudis have blockaded Yemen, preventing food as well as weapons from getting into the country.

“I don't think there's any question the Saudi-led coalition, along with the Houthis and all of those involved, are using food as a weapon,” Beasley said.

Beasley was South Carolina’s governor from 1995 to 1999. He was selected to lead the UN’s anti-famine program earlier this year after fellow Republican Donald Trump was elected president and fellow South Carolinian, former Gov. Nikki Haley, became the administration’s UN ambassador.

In that role, he has highlighted a wave of man-made food crises in Yemen and other conflict zones that have created “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.”

“I call upon the leaders of the world to bring the pressure to bear, whatever’s necessary, to get the Saudi-led coalition, and the Houthis and all those involved to the table and end this thing,” Beasley said.

“You keep going the way you’re going, there’s not going to be anybody left. All the children are going to be dead.”

This story was originally published November 20, 2017 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Ahead of Thanksgiving, former SC governor calls on world to save starving children."