Local Editor
Some 21 million out of a total population of 25 million need humanitarian assistance in Yemen and 15-million lack access to healthcare services, according to an editorial published by Lancet.
The journal presented the figures in introducing the World Humanitarian Summit to be held in May in Turkey. Water supplies are running out, there are no natural rivers and even the aquifers have little water.
The country suffers from one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world and half the population lives on less than 2 dollars a day. The medical journal noted that 60 million people in the world had been forced to leave their homes due to conflicts and that 218 million are made refugees by natural disasters every year. The article mentioned the situation in Syria, where among other damage caused by war there are also a million orphans, and said that the summit hopes to bring about change.
It noted that the current response to healthcare and humanitarian crises had failed, and that the death of 5,000 migrants in 2015 seeking refuge in other countries bore witness to this.
Yemen has been under military attacks by Saudi Arabia since March 26. The Saudi military strikes were launched with the aim of undermining Ansarullah and bringing fugitive former president of Yemen, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back to power.
More than 8,300 people have been killed and over 16,000 others injured since the Saudi aerial aggression began. The Saudi war has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s facilities and infrastructure.
Yemen has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The UN says famine looms as over half the population, or 14.4 million people, face hunger and not even its hospitals are spared.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
