Shocking! 540,000 children in Yemen ‘starving’: UNICEF

 

More than 540,000 children under the age of 5 in Yemen are starving and facing severe acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund).

UNICEF said on Friday that a child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen due to life-threatening severe acute malnutrition. The UN children’s agency UNICEF revealed that around 11 million children need humanitarian assistance.

UNICEF said it required $484 million to continue assistance in Yemen. However, it raised only $1.2 billion for all its agencies in Yemen. The UN warned that it could be forced to slash support for Yemeni children.

UNICEF reportedly said, “The funding gap UNICEF faced through 2022 and continues to face since the beginning of 2023 is putting the required humanitarian response for children in Yemen at risk.”

Peter Hawkins, the agency’s representative in the country, has raised concern over this matter. Over 2.3 million children in Yemen are living in internally displaced person camps because of the conflict in the country. They reportedly need medicine and sanitary facilities to survive.

According to UNICEF, child marriage, child labour, or military recruitment of children is still prevalent in Yemen. Hawkins said, "The lives of millions of vulnerable children in Yemen remain at risk.”

Yemen has been embroiled in a war since 2014, with the Iran-backed Houthi militia fighting against a Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the internationally-recognised government in Yemen.

The UN's children’s humanitarian aid organisation revealed that many people died, including children, due to Yemen's war between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and government forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition.

More than 11,000 children are known to have been killed due to the war. The UN describes the war in Yemen as one of the world's worst humanitarian tragedies.

According to the United Nations, two-thirds of Yemen's population will require urgent humanitarian assistance this year.