How drone strikes are affecting Yemen Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma and anxiety are becoming rampant in the different corners of the country where drones are active. Drones hover over an area for hours, sometimes days and weeks, said Rooj Alwazir, a Yemeni-American anti-drone activist and cofounder of Support Yemen, a media collective raising awareness about issues afflicting the country. Yemenis widely describe suffering from constant sleeplessness, anxiety, short-tempers, an inability to concentrate and, unsurprisingly, paranoia. Alwazir recalled a Yemeni villager telling her that the drones are looking inside our homes and even at our women. She says that, this feeling of infringement of privacy, combined with civilian casualties and constant fear and anxiety has a profound long time psychological effect on those living under drones. Last year, London-based forensic psychologist Peter Schaapveld presented research hed conducted on the psychological impact of drone strikes in Yemen to a British parliamentary sub-committee. He reported that 92 percent of the population sample he examined was found to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder – with children being the demographic most significantly affected. Women, he found, claimed to be miscarrying from their fear of drones. This is a population that by any figure is hugely suffering, Schaapveld said. The fear of drones, he added, is traumatizing an entire generation.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 10:31:44 +0000
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