An extra one million severely food insecure children in Yemen risk falling into famine as the ongoing war causes food and fuel prices to soar across the country, charity Save the Children has warned.
But another threat comes from fighting as there is a real risk its port – a vital lifeline for goods and aid for 80 per cent of Yemen’s population – could be damaged or temporarily closed, reducing the supply of available of food and fuel as well as driving up prices even further. This would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in immediate danger while pushing millions more into famine.
The United Nations has warned that disruption to keep food, fuel and aid flowing into Yemen, particularly through Hodeidah, could result in one of the worst hunger crises in living history. Save the Children stated an additional one million children now risk falling into famine as prices of food and transportation rise, bringing the total to 5.2 million.
“Millions of children don’t know when or if their next meal will come,” the chief executive of Save the Children International, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said.
“In one hospital I visited in north Yemen, the babies were too weak to cry, their bodies exhausted by hunger.
“This war risks killing an entire generation of Yemen’s children who face multiple threats, from bombs to hunger to preventable diseases like cholera,” she added.
> Shiuly Rina
