Yemen | One in four children in Yemen are acutely malnourished

A boy plays with a tap at a shelter in the Bani Omar area of ​​southern Taiz. Photo: Imago/Anadolu Agency The humanitarian situation in Yemen is catastrophic, a direct result of the war between the military coalition, which supports the government with Saudi support, and the Houthi militia, which controls the southwest of the country. Last week, representatives of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned of the developments. According to this, at least 130,000 Yemenis have been expelled from their homes since the beginning of September. The “epicenter of the crisis” remains the third largest Yemeni city of Taizz, which is said to account for more than 60 percent of all displaced people. The administrative districts of Al-Jauf, Marib and Al-Hodeidah are also affected.

The fighting in Yemen is severely disrupting access to health and treatment centers and causing a rise in acute malnutrition among children, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) said.

Yemeni UNICEF representative Akhil Ijer said last Friday in Geneva that hunger and malnutrition are affecting more and more children as violence escalates in the country. According to Ijer, of the 130,000 displaced people, 71,000 are children (55 percent), most of them from or within the southwestern governorate of Taizz. "Conflict drives hunger, and hunger makes children more vulnerable to conflict," said Ijer, according to the TV news channel "Al-Jazeera." Unicef ​​is "very concerned about a very visible increase in acute malnutrition among children."

Mobile Unicef ​​teams have examined almost 2,900 children in accessible areas in the past few weeks. More than a quarter of them were acutely malnourished, Ijer said, with 200 of them in the most severe category. According to Unicef, 2.2 million children under five are expected to be acutely malnourished this year and more than half a million will suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

The managing director of Save the Children Germany, Florian Westphal, describes how serious the situation is: The humanitarian aid plan has so far only been 20 percent funded. Additional financial resources are needed to provide for newly displaced children and families and to maintain existing offers of assistance. "Every child in Yemen should have safe access to health care, food, water, education, shelter and protection," said Westphal. Infectious diseases such as measles, acute watery diarrhea and cholera are increasing, and heavy rains and flash floods are putting additional strain on the humanitarian situation.

"Even before the most recent escalation, more than 5.2 million people were internally displaced in Yemen."

The Yemeni health system was anything but robust beforehand. According to the UN, only 60 percent of health facilities were fully functional in January; at least 450 facilities have been closed. This would leave millions of malnourished children and pregnant women without access to life-saving medical care and vaccinations against preventable diseases such as measles, diphtheria, cholera and polio.

UNHCR writes: »Even before the latest escalation, more than 5.2 million people were internally displaced in Yemen; The current fighting is further exacerbating the already devastating humanitarian crisis in the country. It is estimated that more than 22 million people need assistance, including internally displaced people and around 65,000 refugees and asylum seekers, primarily from Somalia and Ethiopia.”

But the warring parties are of little interest in this catastrophic humanitarian situation. On the contrary: there are few conciliatory tones coming from Saudi Arabia. Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has vowed not to compromise on the kingdom's security in the face of Houthi attacks, saying Yemen's rebels "choose chaos and destruction and threaten the Yemeni people and the region." His country "will not hesitate to respond to a threat or attack aimed at undermining its security," he said in a speech on Wednesday.

The Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammad Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud wants to take tough action against the Yemeni Houthi militia. Photo: Imago/ABACAPRESS On Thursday evening, Saudi Arabia's highest-ranking cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh Bin Fauzan Al-Fauzan, called on his own troops in Yemen to be prepared to sacrifice their lives; He made war a religious duty and thereby fueled fears of further escalation, the New York Times reported. The Grand Mufti therefore explained that soldiers could sacrifice their lives out of devotion to God by repelling attacks and “punishing anyone” who threatened the kingdom. The reinstatement of the internationally recognized Yemeni government is one of the most urgent obligations.

The G7 countries recently supported the government's military coalition and called on the Houthi militia to stop attacks on Saudi Arabia and international shipping.

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