Yemen faces catastrophic malnutrition
By Sunil Freeman
Major aid organizations, including Oxfam, Save the Children, and Care, are warning that Yemen faces a catastrophic crisis, with 10 million people—44 percent of the population—lacking sufficient food, and alarming rates of malnutrition. Oxfam has noted a $262 million shortfall in a United Nations appeal for humanitarian assistance that is only 43 percent funded.
One-third of the children suffer severe malnutrition in parts of the country, and the U.N. estimates that 267,000 children face malnutrition so severe as to be life threatening. Hunger has doubled since 2009, driven by surging food and fuel prices. Oxfam’s International Director Penny Lawrence said, “Yemeni families are at the brink and have exhausted their ways of coping with this crisis.”
The British newspaper The Guardian has reported that Yemeni officials note an increase in U.S. drone strikes since President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi took power in February. The Guardian also noted that the U.S. has spent hundreds of millions in military assistance to Yemen.
