One Yemeni child under the age of five dies every nine minutes due to the conflict, with malnutrition being one of the leading causes of death, according to a new report from the United Nations (UN).
Deaths to Reach 377,000 by End of the Year
The UN has estimated that the death toll from the civil war in Yemen is expected to hit 377,000 by the end of 2021.
Of those deaths, the UN Development Program (UNDP) estimates nearly 60% will be caused by a lack of access to food, water, healthcare, and other indirect causes.
The report projects that in the last six years, the crisis has caused Yemen to miss out on US $126 billions of potential economic growth.
Millions of Yemenis continue to suffer from the conflict, trapped in poverty and with little possibility for jobs and livelihoods,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.”
If the conflict continues through 2030, the report projects that it will have taken 1.3 million lives by that year.
Moreover, the report shows that a growing proportion of those deaths will not occur due to fighting, but due to second-order impacts that the crisis is waging on livelihoods, food prices, and the deterioration of basic services such as health and education.
Thus far, the report projects that 60 percent of deaths from the crisis have been caused by these secondary factors – a proportion projected to grow to 75 per cent by 2030 if the war continues.
In this way, the report sheds light on the lesser known yet widespread impacts that a persisting crisis in Yemen will continue to have across key dimensions of development and well-being.
The crisis has already pushed an additional 4.9 million people into malnutrition, and the report projects that this toll will grow to 9.2 million by 2030 if the war persists; by the same year, the number of people living in extreme poverty would surge to 22 million, 65% of the population.
The report further warns that if the conflict continues through 2030, the report projects that it will have taken 1.3 million lives by that year.
The report comes as Yemen continues to be mired in a conflict underway since 2015, which in addition to loss of life is tearing apart livelihoods, social fabric, causing Yemen to teeter on the brink of famine, and resulting in widespread reversals of development progress.
