Local Editor
In the Yemeni coastal town of Al-Tuhayta, 19 months into a devastating civil war, Futayni Ali watches helplessly as his five children complain of hunger. "We couldn’t even buy shrouds to bury those of us who have already died from hunger," says the fisherman in his 50s, referring to other town residents. Ali used to make USD 30 a day from fishing in the Red Sea before the Saudi-led coalition launched its military campaign against Yemen.
"We have sold all we had - even the beds we slept on and the plates we ate from."
Over 10,000 civilians have been killed and three million people displaced in the conflict since March 2015, according to modest estimates.
But in an impoverished country already suffering from widespread food insecurity before the war, hunger has also escalated with millions in need of food aid.
One and a half million children suffer from malnutrition, including 370,000 for whom it is so severe it weakens their immune system, the UN children’s agency says.
Hodeidah, where Ali and his family live, was Yemen’s poorest province even before the war. Today health authorities there warn of a "catastrophic situation due to starvation".
The crisis is most visible in Ali’s hometown of Al-Tuhayta, where many have been reduced to skeletons with pale faces, sunken cheeks, and blank eyes.
"We have nothing left to eat," the 18-year-old with protruding bones says, sitting on a wheelchair at a therapeutic feeding center.
Source: AFP, Edited by Website Team
