Local Editor
More than 50,000 Yemeni children are likely to die by the end of the year as a result of disease and starvation caused by the stalemated war in the country, Save the Children has warned.
Humanitarian groups estimate that around 130 children are dying each day in the Arab world’s poorest country as it grapples with famine and the largest cholera outbreak in modern history.
Around 40,000 children are estimated to have died already this year as a result of severe acute malnutrition and Save the Children projects that figure will be above 50,000 by the end of the Christmas period.
“These deaths are as senseless as they are preventable. They mean more than a hundred mothers grieving for the death of a child, day after day,” said Tamer Kirolos, the group’s Yemen director.
The calculations were made before Saudi Arabia tightened an already severe blockade on parts of the country.
The blockade has closed the port of Hodeida, a key entry point for food, and the airport in the capital Sana’a, where humanitarian flights have been landing to deliver aid and medicine. Kirolos warned that “unless the blockade is lifted immediately more children will die”.
Food shortages in Yemen have filled overcrowded hospitals with malnourished children, their skin often loose from hunger and with ribs jutting out. Malnourished children are especially vulnerable to death as a result of cholera and other diarrheal diseases.
Dr Najla al-Sonboli, the head of pediatrics at Sana’a’s Sabeen hospital, told The Telegraph that she and her staff were seeing a new outbreak of diphtheria, a deadly bacterial infection that builds in the back of a child’s throat.
Diphtheria is highly contagious and al-Sonboli has tried to keep the infected children in isolation. But one boy arrived needing a mechanical ventilator to breathe and the only one working was in a care ward where other children were staying.
“We had a choice: either let this child die or put her in the ward and risk infecting the other children. I took my decision to save the child, I couldn’t let him die in front of me.”
Despite the staff’s efforts, the boy died soon after.
The tightening of the Saudi blockade on November 6 has sent food prices skyrocketing and caused severe petrol shortages, making it more difficult to get food to hungry people.
Many areas of the north of Yemen are entirely without electricity as power stations were forced to close because of a lack of petrol.
Around 385,000 children are estimated to be suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Yemen and aid agencies believe that only around half of those are receiving treatment.
Both the UK and the US are supporting the Saudi-led military coalition as it bombs and blockades Yemen in support of the resigned Hadi regime.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team