CAIRO (AP) – More than 2 million Yemeni children under the age of 5 are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021, four United Nations agencies said on Friday, asking interested parties to end the conflict years that led the poorest country in the Arab world to the brink of hunger.
The UN report warned that almost one in six of these children – 400,000 of the 2.3 million – are at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition this year, a significant increase from last year’s estimates. The report also said that a lack of funds is hampering humanitarian programs in Yemen, as donor nations have not kept their commitments.
To make the crisis worse, some 1.2 million pregnant or breastfeeding women in Yemen are also expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year.
“These numbers are yet another cry for help from Yemen, where each malnourished child also means a family struggling to survive,” said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, which published the report in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organization. , UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
“The Yemen crisis is a toxic mix of conflict, economic collapse and a severe shortage of funds,” explained Beasley. In 2020, humanitarian programs in Yemen received just $ 1.9 billion of the $ 3.4 billion needed, the report said.
UNICEF estimates that nearly all of Yemen’s 12 million children need some assistance. This can include food aid, health services, drinking water, education and cash donations to help the poorest families survive.
“But there is a solution to hunger, which is food and an end to violence,” said Beasley.
Yemenis suffered six years bloodshed, destruction and humanitarian catastrophe. In 2014, Houthi rebels allied with Iran took over the capital and much of the north of the country. A Saudi-led coalition launched widespread military intervention months later to restore the UN-backed government. Despite relentless Saudi air strikes and the blockade of Yemen, the war has come to a halt.
Last week, President Joe Biden announced that the US will no longer support the Saudi-led coalition. But reaching peace will be a difficult path.
Biden also reversed the Trump administration’s designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organization. That move was welcomed by aid groups working in Yemen, who fear that the designation will disrupt the flow of food, fuel and other goods that barely keep Yemenis alive.
“Malnourished children are more vulnerable to disease … It is a vicious and often deadly cycle, but with relatively cheap and simple interventions, many lives can be saved,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.