Yemen: millions of children facing deadly hunger, amidst aid shortages and COVID-19 UN report

​

Millions of children in the heart of the world’s worst humanitarian disaster could be pushed to the brink of starvation, due to huge shortfalls in humanitarian aid funding amid the coronavirus pandemic, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said 

​

UNICEF reported that an additional 6,600 children under five could die from preventable causes by the end of the year. With a health system teetering closer to collapse, only half of the health facilities are operational, with huge shortages in medicine, equipment, and staff. 

More than eight million people, nearly half of them children, depend directly on the agency for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), amid ongoing conflict, cholera outbreaks, and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

​

“We cannot overstate the scale of this emergency as children, in what is already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the battle for survival as COVID-19 takes hold”, said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, UNICEF Representative to Yemen.

​

“As the world’s attention focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic I fear the children of Yemen will be all but forgotten. Despite our own preoccupations right now, we all have a responsibility to act and help the children of Yemen. They have the same rights of any child, anywhere”, Ms. Nyanti added. 

In the report, the agency alerts for almost 10 million children without proper access to water and sanitation, as well as for 7.8 million children without access to education, following school closures. 

​

Widespread absence from class and a worsening economy could put children at greater risk of child labour, recruitment into armed groups, and child marriage, the report highlights. 

 

Yemen, one of the Middle East’s poorest countries, has been devastated by war, torn apart by conflict, and gripped by hunger & malnutrition. Even before the war, Yemen was the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula. In 2012, some 44% of its population of 25 million were undernourished with about 5 million requiring emergency aid. 

 

today two-thirds of the population - 19 million people - need aid. 12 million people in Yemen have faced the threat of famine brought on by years of civil war and the situation is rapidly deteriorating. Children are dying of malnutrition due to food and water shortages.

 

Yemen’s deteriorating economic situation is putting essential public services on the verge of collapse; humanitarian needs in the country are mounting. The UN has appealed for $2.1 billion to provide food and other life-saving aid. Despite the on-going humanitarian efforts, famine is now real in Yemen.

​

The health system is near collapse. More than 19 million people lack access to clean water and sanitation facilities, whilst 14.1 million people are in desperate need of basic health care.

 

4thechildren is appealing for as much funds as possible to help women & children who are in desperate need of food, clean water and medical essentials. Please donate what you can today to help make a difference and save lives tomorrow.

 

 

​

​

​

https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/06/1067082