“17.4 million Yemenis of 30 million are now in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, including 2.2 million children suffering from acute malnutrition.”
This came in a joint report issued by the UNICEF, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, in which it warned of a possible humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen during the period from next June to December.
“With the number of people who likely will be unable to meet their minimum food needs in Yemen possibly reaching a record 19 million people in that period. At the same time, an additional 1.6 million people in the country are expected to fall into emergency levels of hunger, taking the total to 7.3 million people by the end of the year” added the report.
The agencies also pointed out that “the number of people experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger — IPC Phase 5, famine conditions — is projected to increase five-fold, from 31,000 currently to 161,000 people — over the second half of 2022.”
The report also “shows a persistent high level of acute malnutrition among children under the age of five. Across Yemen, 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished, including nearly more than half a million children facing severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition.”
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had recently warned that millions of Yemenis would plunge into famine, if urgent action was not taken in the crisis-stricken Arab country.
The United Nations shared a tweet saying, “Children in Yemen are not starving due to the lack of food, but because their families cannot afford food.”
WFP was forced to reduce food rations for eight million people at the beginning of the year due to a shortage of funding, amid warnings of an increase in hunger.
The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program, David Beasley, recently warned of a disaster that could afflict Yemen, with food funding for citizens continuing to dry up.
He explained that the World Food Program needs $800 million over the next six months, to provide full assistance to the 13 million people in Yemen.
For seven years, Yemen has been witnessing a war that has claimed 233,000 lives, and caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, leaving 80% of the population (30 million) dependent on aid to survive.
