According to the aid organization UNICEF, more and more children are at risk of starvation due to a lack of aid in Yemen. UNICEF warned today that another 30,000 children could be affected by life-threatening acute malnutrition in the next six months.
The number of malnourished children under the age of five could rise to 2.4 million, it said. This corresponds to almost half of all Yemeni children in this age group. The destroyed health system and the infrastructure are at the same time completely overwhelmed with the coronavirus pandemic.
If millions of dollars of additional aid are not available by the end of August, there is a risk of disaster. „It’s hard to overstate the magnitude of this world’s worst humanitarian crisis,“ said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, director of UNICEF Yemen. „If we don’t get urgently needed funding, the children will be put on the brink of famine and many will die.“
Civil war for six years
A civil war has been raging in Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula for almost six years. The Houthi rebels are fighting against the internationally recognized government supported by Saudi Arabia. A coalition led by Riyadh regularly flies attacks in Yemen.
Aid organizations complain about insufficient money for their programs in Yemen. The World Food Program (WFP) announced in April, despite the dramatic situation, to drastically cut its aid to the civil war country due to lack of money. At the beginning of June, 30 countries pledged $ 1.35 billion in aid to a donor conference – a good half of the amount needed by the end of the year. UN emergency aid coordinator Mark Lowcock said afterwards that one could not be satisfied with the result.
