Children starve as Yemen teeters on a return to fighting | World News,The Indian Express

For years starvation has been an everyday threat for Yemen’s children. Now, as the war threatens to escalate between the country’s warring parties after months of a tenuous truce, there are fears that it could get worse.

About a dozen other children in the red-brick hospital in this southern Yemeni city are also dying of starvation. Hunger has long threatened the lives of hundreds of thousands of Yemen’s children. Now, the war between the country’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition is threatening to escalate after months of a tenuous truce. Yemenis, and international assistance groups, worry that the situation will get even worse.

In the city of Hodeida, with a population of roughly 3 million, al-Thawra Hospital receives 2,500 patients daily, including “super-malnourished” children, said Joyce Msuya, U.N. assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs. She visited the facility this month.

Around 2.2 million Yemeni children under the age of 5 are hungry. More than half a million are severely malnourished. Some 1.3 million pregnant or breastfeeding women had severe malnutrition this year, the United Nations says. “This is one of the saddest visits I’ve ever done in my professional life,” Msuya said in a video released by the U.N.

“There are immense needs. Half of Yemeni hospitals are not functioning, or they are completely destroyed by the war. We need more support to save lives in Yemen, children, women and men.

”The war in Ukraine is exacerbating the situation. The Yemeni diet depends heavily on wheat. Ukraine supplied Yemen with 40% of its grain, until Russia’s invasion cut the flow. In developed countries, people are working harder to pay higher bills. In Yemen, food is 60% more expensive than it was last year. And in poor countries, inflation can mean death.

https://indianexpress.com/article/world/children-starve-yemen-teeters-on-return-to-fighting-8217426/

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