Yemen is in the grip of a humanitarian crisis with 18.8 million people in need of humanitarian help, and over 14 million people facing starvation and malnutrition.
Faisal, 18 months old, is treated for severe acute malnutrition. Photograph © UNICEF/Yasin.
When winds of revolution stirred the Arab world in December 2010, Yemenis sprung to action. The country had suffered years of instability, corruption and poverty and then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh had just proposed to amend the constitution to allow him to keep office for life. Yemeni citizens took to the streets to demand – among other things – Saleh’s resignation. When Salah finally did stand down, he started pulling strings behind the scenes. In March 2015, with Saleh silently behind them, Houthi Shia forces launched a bitter campaign to overthrow the government and gain control of the country.
Since then, Yemen and its people have been caught in the middle of a war between Houthi forces and fighters loyal to the government. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has seized some parts of the country, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has joined in on the violence.
The spiraling unrest has killed over ten thousand Yemenis, displaced more than 3 million people and pushed over 14 million in to hunger and malnutrition.
Even before the war, Yemen struggled with food insecurity and 90% of its basic foods and medicine supplies were imported. Now, the war has destroyed or blocked the all-important access routes that transported food into and throughout the country. According to the World Food Program, even humanitarian agencies can’t get through to some areas because there is simply no safe passage.
Humanitarian aid supplies arrive at the port of Hodeidah in Yemen. Photograph © UNICEF/ Alayyashi.
Four in five Yemenis are now in need of humanitarian assistance and those most impacted by the crisis are children. The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, says nearly three million people in Yemen are in immediate need of food supply and about 370,000 of those children are suffering acute malnutrition.
Even if food access is restored or the conflict ends, the effects of malnutrition (stunted growth and delayed cognitive development) may stay with these children for life.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien visited Yemen in October this year, and described the sight of small and skeletal children suffering malnutrition as “absolutely devastating.”
At 2 years and 8 months old, Hanadi weighs just 7 kilograms. Photograph © UNICEF/Yasin.
And it’s not just war and malnutrition plaguing the people of Yemen. The conflict has razed water and sanitation infrastructure and led to other serious health risks. On October 6, authorities confirmed reports of cholera. The United Nations worries an outbreak of cholera – a highly contagious disease caused by ingesting contaminated food or water – could further devastate Yemen, particularly given the cramped and unclean living arrangements of the country’s more than 2.2 million internally displaced people.
Yemeni children on their daily journey in search for water. Photograph © UNICEF/Mahyoob.
“The cholera outbreak is particularly worrying for refugees, asylum seekers and local communities in Yemen whose risks and vulnerabilities are compounded by the ongoing conflict and the deteriorating humanitarian situation,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned last month.
With civil war continuing to rage and aid agencies’ efforts frustrated by conflict and lack of funds, the battle to contain a potential cholera outbreak and respond to the extreme humanitarian crisis in Yemen is daunting.
“We need to do more,” O’Brien said in his October visit, “We need to do everything we can to meet the very large scale of needs here in Yemen.”