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The winner of this year’s Peace Prize, the UN Food Program, has repeatedly called on the world to prevent a great famine in the war-torn country. But contributions from donor countries are still too small and peace is not in sight either.
Now, the director of the United Nations Food Program (WFP) reminds us once again what is happening before the eyes of the world community.
Yemen is on the brink of starvation and we must not turn our backs on the millions of families who now desperately need it, says David Beasley.
He calls on the world to wake up and points out that the number of people experiencing catastrophic food insecurity in Yemen will increase from 16,500 to 47,000 from January to June next year.
– About to lose
The number of people suffering from food shortages in the fourth phase, that is, the degree of hunger, can increase from 3.6 million to 5 million in the same period.
“Hunger is still preventable, but that opportunity is lost to us with each passing day,” says Beasley.
Photographs taken of children in Yemen clearly show that for many, the disaster is already a fact. There are children in hospitals who look almost like skeletons, and in many cases it is too late to save them. Survivors run the risk of life-threatening injuries due to severe malnutrition.
In July, the UN warned that nearly one in nine people in the world is starving, and that the trend is exacerbated by the corona pandemic and climate change.
Avoiding hospitals
In Yemen, many parents fear what will happen if the youngest are infected with the coronavirus, which makes them hesitate to go to hospitals and health clinics.
UN aid programs in Yemen are also severely underfunded. The call is for 3.2 billion dollars so that the programs can continue, but by mid-October they had only entered 1.43 billion.
In September, critical aid was cut at 300 health centers and more than a third of the main humanitarian programs were reduced or suspended.
Several Arab donors, including Saudi Arabia, had not paid the amounts they had promised, a UN official told the Security Council.
– shocking
The NRC Yemen Country Director calls the hunger figures in Yemen alarming, noting that 13.5 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation.
– Six years of war have made food a weapon against the Yemeni people through a devastating economic blockade, restrictions on imports and continuous attacks on farms and fishermen. While the markets are full, food is out of reach for millions of people who can no longer afford it. All of this is happening while funding for emergency aid has been drastically reduced in Yemen and the economy is collapsing, says Mohamed Abdi.
He claims that NRC has had to halve food aid to 360,000 people because of this.
According to Abdi, it is still possible to prevent a historic famine, but only if the world responds immediately.
