UN warns Yemen at risk of 'devastating famine' within months
The looming famine comes as Yemen records its highest-yet rates of child malnutrition.
Warning that Yemen again faces a looming famine, the United Nations urged donor countries to make good on their funding pledges before a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds in the war-torn country.
“If we choose to look away, there’s no doubt in my mind Yemen will be plunged into a devastating famine within a few short months,” UN food chief David Beasley told the Security Council on Wednesday.
“We have been here before … We did almost the same dog-and-pony show. We sounded the alarm then,” Beasley said, adding, “Quite frankly their suffering is even more pitiful” now.
The nearly six-year war between the Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen has created what the UN says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The grueling conflict has left the country's health care system dangerously overstretched and 80% of the population — some 24 million Yemenis — in need of humanitarian assistance to survive.
