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full screen A malnourished boy is weighed in a hospital in Hodeidah, Yemen. The picture is from October 2022. Photo: Hussam Al-Bakry/AP/TT
Famine worsens in war-torn Yemen. The number of children under the age of five suffering from acute malnutrition in government-controlled areas has increased by 34 percent compared to last year, according to the UN children’s agency Unicef.
Over 600,000 children are currently affected, of which 120,000 are classified as severely malnourished.
Since 2014, Yemen has been embroiled in a devastating conflict between the internationally recognized government, backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, and the Iran-backed militant Houthi movement. The war has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, in a country that was already the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula before the conflict.
“The sharp increase is caused by a combined effect of disease outbreaks (cholera and measles), limited access to food and clean drinking water, and economic decline,” states Unicef.
The famine statistics come from 117 different government-controlled districts in Yemen, and thus do not cover the equally dire situation in Houthi-controlled areas.