Local Editor
The charity organization Oxfam is calling for an urgent appeal to help the people of Yemen.
“Famine is imminent. It could happen any time... People have [sold] all their belongings and they have nothing more to sell in order to get food,” Ibrahim Alwazir, Oxfam Communications Coordinator in Yemen.
The people of Yemen are experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The conflict between a Saudi-led coalition of Gulf countries and the resigned regime of former president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi against the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, which escalated in March 2015, has so far caused more than 17,000 civilian deaths and injuries.
Over three million people have been forced to flee their homes due to the bombing and fighting. 24 million people – 80 percent of Yemen population – need emergency aid, the greatest number in any country in the world.
The country’s economy has also been shattered. Countless homes, warehouses, farms and vital parts of civilian infrastructure have been destroyed. Basic services, like health or water supply, are collapsing. The flow of food – nearly 90 percent of which had to be imported even before the conflict started - has been massively disrupted by the warring parties. Prices are continuing to rise, while many of the poorest people have lost their incomes.
An estimated 20 million Yemenis, 60 percent of the population, are suffering from food insecurity and malnutrition, including 2 million children. According to the UN, 14 million people – half the population – face a clear and present danger of imminent famine.
Yemen is also facing the world’s worst ever recorded cholera outbreak, which has spread to nearly every corner of the war-ravaged country. More than 1.3 million cases have been reported and at least 2,700 people have died since the start of the epidemic. Many more are now at risk, already weakened by hunger and the effects of the ongoing war.
The war-torn country is also facing the triple threat of war, disease and hunger. Continuing conflict, airstrikes and restrictions on imports have left 14 million people facing famine. For millions of Yemeni women, men and children, life remains a daily struggle and violence a constant threat.
Source: Yemenwatcn.net & Agencies
