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“In the absence of immediate action, millions of lives could be lost,” Secretary General António Guterres said Friday.
Two out of three people do not have enough food in Yemen, a country of 28 million people south of the Arabian Peninsula.
For years, Yemen has been the center of the world’s worst food crisis, fueled by a devastating war.
Countdown
Yemeni-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels captured the capital, Sanaa, in the north of the country in 2014. The following year, a regional coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States went to war against the Houthis on behalf of the southern government.
The UN has long declared that war has triggered the worst humanitarian crisis of our time.
In Yemen, “a countdown to disaster is under way,” David Beasley warned at the UN Security Council last week.
– Famine is really a real and dangerous opportunity, and the warning lights are flashing red, as red as possible, said Beasley, who is the leader of the World Food Program (WFP), the organization that receives the Nobel Prize for La Paz this year for your efforts in the fight against hunger. .
Half portions
The UN has had to cut the rations given to 9 million people in Yemen by half. The danger is that the relief rations of another 6 million Yemenis will be cut in half in January.
International aid prevented famine two years ago. But this year, the threat has returned with mounting violence and a currency collapse that has made food inaccessible to more and more people.
Donors have been skeptical about putting funds on the table due to corruption and the restrictions that the Houthis have placed on humanitarian workers.
Fear of the seal of terror
Guterres’ latest warning came after reports that President Donald Trump was considering labeling the Houthi movement a terrorist organization.
It could completely ruin emergency aid deliveries and worsen the situation in Yemen, according to aid organizations.
Guterres refers only indirectly to the messages.
– I urge all who have influence to act immediately to avoid disaster. I also ask that everyone avoid taking measures that could worsen the already bad situation, says the Secretary-General.
Recent studies show that at least 98,000 children under the age of five can die of malnutrition in southern Yemen. The situation may be even worse in the north, where the UN is conducting similar investigations.
