ABS, Yemen (AP) – Boy twins lie on a bed of woven palm leaves in a remote camp for displaced people in northern Yemen, their collar bones and ribs visible. They were crying loudly, as if in pain, as if they were fed up with no pain, no disease, but hunger.
Here, there are increasingly alarming warnings from UN officials that the growing hunger crisis around the world is becoming a reality.
UN agencies have warned that about 250 million people in 20 countries are threatened with a sharp rise in malnutrition or even drought in the coming months.
Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Congo and Burkina Faso – the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) this week released 100 100 million in emergency funds to seven countries at risk of drought.
But David Beasley, head of the World Food Program, says billions of new aid is needed. Without it, “we will end the Bible-like famine in 2021,” he told the Associated Press. Last week.
In multiple countries, coronavirus epidemics have added a new burden on top of the impact of ongoing wars, pushing more people into poverty, unable to provide food. At the same time, international aid funding has dwindled, undermining the safety net that keeps people alive.
In the Afghan capital, Kabul, Zemer Hakimi said he could give his children only one meal a day, usually hard, black bread dipped in tea. He lost his job as a taxi driver after signing the COVID-19 contract and now waits for daily labor on the street for work that rarely comes.
When her children complain of hunger, she says, “I tell them to bear it. One day maybe we’ll do something good. ”
South Sudan may be closer to drought than any other country, as the crisis comes after a five-year civil war on the population. The UN estimated earlier this year that a quarter of the state’s population, more than 1.5 million people, would be on the brink of drought.
Now that the effects of the floods have cut off most parts of the world, affecting nearly 1 million people, many South Sudanese have seen agriculture and other foodstuffs erupt. The challenges are so numerous that “plastic sheets are not available, as they were used extensively in response to previous floods,” the UN humanitarian agency said this week.
COVID-19 has banned trade and travel. Food prices advanced. Post-war unrest remains fatal; Gunmen recently opened fire on a supplying WFP boat.
“The integration of the conflict, the macroeconomic crisis, the recurring floods and the indirect effects of the quid create a ‘complete hurricane,'” Rosalind Crother, the country’s director of the Care Aid Group, said in an email. “Floods and violence have caused massive displacement, low crop production and loss of livelihoods and livestock.”
In the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen is on a “countdown to destruction,” the WFP’s Beasley warned the Security Council last week.
“Drought is really a real and dangerous prospect and the warning lights … shining red – can be red,” he said.
For years, Yemen has been the epicenter of the world’s worst food crisis, with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels occupying the north and the capital, Sanaa, driven by a devastating civil war in 2014 and backed by a Saudi-led coalition government. South.
International aid pulled it from the brink of famine two years ago. But the threat posed by rising violence and a currency collapse has risen again this year, leaving food out of reach for a growing number of people.
Donors have been wary of new funding because of the corruption and sanctions imposed on humanitarian workers in Houth. The UN had to cut half the rations it gave to 9 million people – and another 6 million would face potential cuts in January.
According to their doctor, the 18-month-old twins, Mohammed and Ali, weigh about 3 kilograms or 6.6 pounds, less than a third of what they should be.
His father, Hassan al-Jamai, was a farmer in the northern Hajjah province near the Saudi border. Soon after his birth, the family had to fight in a displaced camp in the Abs district.
“We are fighting for their treatment,” said the twins’ grandmother, Mary Haas. “His father took him everywhere.”
One-third of Yemen’s population of about 280 million people is hungry. In the South, recent UN survey figures show a 15.5% increase in cases of severe malnutrition this year, and at least 98,000 children may die from it.
By the end of the year, 41% of the South’s 8 million people expect significant gaps in food consumption, up more than 25%.
Homes of more than 200 million people, in Sana’a and the north, could be in worse shape. The UN is currently conducting a similar survey there.
Sanaa’s main hospital, Al-Sabin, has received more than 180 cases of malnutrition and acute malnutrition in the last three months, well on its capacity, said Amin al-Izari, a nurse.
At least five children died during that period, with more deaths, he said.
In Afghanistan – as in Yemen, crippled by war – epidemics mean more job losses and rising food prices. The World Bank estimates that the poverty rate is expected to jump from 72% of the population of approximately 36 million this year to 72%.
About 700,000 Afghan workers returned from Iran and Pakistan this year after a coronavirus outbreak. Significant income for families in Afghanistan, millions of dollars were being withheld and returnees needed work.
The markets in Kabul seem to be full of food items. But shop owners say fewer customers can afford anything. According to UN figures, many people are experiencing large gaps in their diet – the population is expected to grow by 5% by the end of the year.
In the Bagrami displaced camp in the mountains around Kabul, Gul Makai sits next to his mud-brick hut. He spent the night cutting water and mud after the roof leaked in recent snow. Temperatures have dropped below freezing with early rains this year.
Her 12 children, all 10 or more, sat with her, hungry and shivering from the cold wind. All of them were thin. One daughter, Nemat, about 4, indicates malnutrition that had a crop appearance.
Makai fled her home in the southern province of Helmand seven months ago after her husband was killed in a crossfire between government forces and the Taliban. By begging, she tied up enough rice or hard bread to feed her children once a day. He eats every other day.
“The weather will be cold in the winter,” he said. “If I don’t get help, my children can get sick, or if God doesn’t give me, I will lose any of them. Our condition is bad. ”
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AP correspondent Kara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report. Akhgar reported from Kabul. Megadie gave Cairo reported.
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