Khashoggi's Fiancee Opens Up in Emotional Op-Ed; Seven-Year-Old Girl Who Symbolized Yemen's Suffering Dies
ALLEN: And welcome back. The president of Turkey has issued one of his most pointed accusations yet on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote this Friday in "The Washington Post," Khashoggi's former employer, this. "We know the perpetrators are --</s>ALLEN: -- "among the 18 suspects detained in Saudi Arabia. We know the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government."</s>HOWELL: Mr. Erdogan accused the Saudis of stalling the investigation of the murder. Khashoggi's fiancee has also written in "The Post," lamenting the lack of progress in this case. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh has this report for us.</s>JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been a month since Jamal Khashoggi took his final footsteps, walking into this building, into the Saudi consulate. And still, one month on, no body, no remains, no grave, making the situation even much harder for his loved ones, for his family. A month that has felt like a lifetime, according to his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who wrote an opinion piece in "The Washington Post" to mark this one month. I met Hatice Cengiz as she was outside this consulate 24 hours after Jamal Khashoggi walked in. She was still waiting for him outside, still hoping he was going to walk out of this building and she was blaming herself for the situation. She broke down into tears, saying she felt guilty, that the only reason Khashoggi went into the consulate was to receive a piece of paper that would allow them to get married. And she's still dealing with these emotions. According to this really emotional piece she wrote and at the same time she's continuing to call for accountability, continuing to call for justice, saying the international community must put pressure on Saudi Arabia to bring those responsible for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi to justice. They must find out where his body is and says that the United States bears a responsibility here to lead this effort. But so far she says it seems that some in Washington -- and this is something we've heard from others here -- they feel that some in the Trump administration are using a stalling tactic, hoping that the world will forget about this, that the world will move on without the United States jeopardizing its ties with Saudi Arabia. But she's saying she will not give up. She'll continue calling for justice and this is something we've also heard from officials here in Turkey, saying they are going to continue with their investigation and they will get to the bottom of this, they say. And the fear here is -- and I've heard this from several human rights activists and dissidents in this region. They say unless the United States and the international community really push for accountability and justice in this case, there will be many other Jamal Khashoggis -- Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Istanbul.</s>HOWELL: Jomana, thank you. There are new calls from the U.S. for a ceasefire in Yemen. The years-long war between Saudi Arabia and Houthi rebels in Yemen has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.</s>ALLEN: Millions of Yemenis are suffering from cholera and starvation. Many of them are children. "The New York Times" published a shocking photo in October, bringing the world's attention back to Yemen. It was a photo very disturbing, very hard to look at. We want to warn you about it because we're going to show it to you in case you missed it. But it's so important to see.</s>HOWELL: Here's the photo. This is Amal, the 7-year-old girl being treated for severe malnutrition. At the time, many readers were struck by her haunting stare. They wanted to know what happened to her. We understand she died just a week after the photo was published.</s>ALLEN: Earlier here, Cyril Vanier spoke with Tyler Hicks, the photographer who took that photo. He described what it was like to meet her and be in Yemen at this time.</s>TYLER HICKS, PHOTOJOURNALIST: Amal was responsive, she was -- she was -- but very calm. She had such little energy. And to me, it just didn't seem like she would survive. We heard after we left that in fact she had been discharged from the hospital. However that was not because she was doing better but because her family didn't have any money to take her to a better clinic and were forced to take her back to her village because new cases were coming in and there's virtually no space for her. When you drive down any street in Yemen, whether it's a big city or out in the middle of nowhere in the countryside, you are absolutely -- that there are people coming up to the vehicle begging. People are absolutely desperate, they're laying in the street. It's not just like a small amount of people. It is everywhere you look, the entire country is desperate, there's no jobs, no money. And that's leading to mass starvation.</s>HOWELL: UNICEF says some 400,000 children just like Amal are suffering severe --</s>HOWELL: -- malnutrition in the country.</s>ALLEN: But Doctors without Borders warns it's impossible for humanitarian organizations working in Yemen to have an overall view of malnutrition across the country. And we're going to talk with our guest about why that is. Caroline Ducarme is the head of mission for Doctors without Borders in Yemen. She joins me now over the phone from the capital, Sanaa. We so appreciate your efforts to talk with us and the work of your group. Why is it that it's so hard in Yemen to get a sense of the scope of this disaster as far as starvation, malnutrition of so many people? And as we just saw, of the very youngest and poorest children?</s>CAROLINE DUCARME, MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES: Hi, yes. So perhaps we can come back just a second on this issue of famine because I know there's a lot of misleading information regarding</s>DUCARME: Something that we want to emphasize, though, is that it is a very dire situation for the population. In fact, we, too, are very concerned about the nutritional status of the population in Yemen. We continue to receive every day in our</s>ALLEN: Yes and, Ms. Ducarme, I want to ask you, this is an ongoing war. What -- and the economy's in shambles, there are no jobs for people, they are truly desperate. What is preventing the situation from improving? What would help your organization work in the country? What would help you get more access to people across the country?</s>DUCARME: Again, the various challenges that we are facing in the country. And access, as you mentioned, is one of them. So access leading to the insecurity and the war in itself. It's true that a lot of population are still living very close to active front lines and that's where they need access to health care and that's where we are. So security is one of the reasons. This is one of the</s>ALLEN: Right, yes. The photographer in "The New York Times" was saying that the little girl that died, they had to leave the hospital because there was not anything they could do for her and the family didn't have money. We so appreciate your talking with us and all the work of Doctors without Borders in this terrible, terrible situation in Yemen. Caroline Ducarme, thank you so much.</s>DUCARME: Thank you for giving me a chance to talk about Yemen.</s>ALLEN: Absolutely, thank you.</s>HOWELL: Thank you for being with us. And we'll be right back.