Around 80% of Population in Yemen is in Need of Humanitarian Assistance

SH.A.

For most babies born into Yemen’s ongoing war, it is difficult to be distracted from the struggle to stay alive.

All they have known is hunger in their lives to date, so they are yet to learn to play.

For the lucky youngsters, they have at least made it to a hospital where their malnutrition is being treated.

But there are many more that are not as lucky and that’s why the aid agencies are asking the world to let them do more.

“The Yemeni humanitarian situation is unfortunately the perfect storm of many different humanitarian issues,” Kimberly Brown from the British Red Cross said.

“So we see internal displacement, we are seeing people being pushed to the brink of famine and at the risk of moving into famine.

“We also see lots of insecurity and the inability for goods to come into the country and for humanitarian workers to be able to operate.”

Around 24 million people live in Yemen and 80% of population is now in need of humanitarian assistance.

More than 14 million are facing starvation.Figures vary on the number of fatalities.

A 2018 UN report estimated that more than 6,000 civilians have been killed and 10,000 injured in the fighting – some suspect the number is five or six that.

Charities estimate that around 85,000 children have perished through malnutrition since 2015, the war’s beginning.

Those that have survived still find themselves engulfed by the crisis – homeless and dependent on aid agencies for food and shelter.

One Yemeni man said “All Yemenis, one way or another, are being destroyed by this war.”