Pope Francis speaks to reporters aboard a plane on the way to Abu Dhabi on February 3, 2019.
(Image credit: Tony Gentile/Getty Images)

Pope Francis called for an end to war and provision of humanitarian relief in Yemen at the start of his first papal trip to the Arabian Peninsula on Sunday.

"The people are exhausted by the long conflict, and many children are hungry, but humanitarian aid isn't accessible. The cries of these children and their parents rise up to God," Francis said. He urged world leaders "to urgently promote compliance with the agreements reached, to ensure the distribution of food, and to work for the good of the population."

The United States has provided material and intelligence support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen since 2015, maintaining involvement even as the Saudi coalition blockade and airstrikes foster the world's most acute humanitarian crisis.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.