Yemen facing a serious risk of famine

March 9/ Yemeni press

The video, shot by the French news agency AFP at Thawra Hospital in the Western Hudaydah Province on Saturday, came less than a week after the UN relief aid chief warned Yemen was facing a “serious risk of famine.”

Locals are seen using jerrycans for water storage amid acute shortages. A woman is seen holding up a baby with an extended belly, while a local points to lesions across another’s body.

Inside the health facility, medical staff are struggling to sustain malnourished infants, and adults are seen scattered around in morbid states.

Speaking during a visit to Yemen’s port city of Aden on Tuesday, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O’Brien said seven million people in the country did not know where their next meal was coming from.

Of that figure, almost 3.3 million, including 2.1 million children, are suffering from acute malnourishment, he said.

Nineteen million out of the country’s 26-million-strong population are in pressing need of humanitarian assistance, O’Brien added.

The Saudi military launched its military campaign in support of Yemen’s former government and imposed an all-out naval blockade on the country. The civilian death toll from the bombardments has exceeded 13,100.

The US and the UK provide coordinates for bombing sorties and military advice as well as the bulk of weapons in Saudi Arabia’s ongoing campaign which has seriously damaged Yemen’s infrastructure.
Yemenpress