UN: 100,000 Yemeni Children in Danger of Starvation

A United Nations report released on Tuesday warned of a worsening food crisis in war-torn Yemen, heightening concerns of mass famine and child malnutrition. According to the report, nearly 100,000 children are at a real risk of starving to death, with over half a million suffering from acute malnutrition. “Yemen is on the brink of a catastrophic food security crisis. If the war doesn’t end now, we are nearing an irreversible situation and risk losing an entire generation of Yemen’s young children,” said Lise Grande, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen. The report details the causes behind the recent spike in food shortages, naming the global coronavirus pandemic, local floods, the ongoing civil war and a significant lack of funding of the global appeal for aid to Yemen as the main reasons. UN officials say that less than half of the $3.2 billion needed to fund the 2020 Yemen humanitarian response has been received, with two months left to go. Yemen is considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis today, as a civil war raging since 2014 has caused the deaths of over 112,000 Yemenis and displaced more than three million.