5 Million Children Face Famine In Yemen: NGO

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SANNA As the ongoing war causes food and fuel prices to skyrocket, 5.2 million children in Yemen are at the risk of famine, a Britain-based NGO, Save the Children, said.

A report published by the NGO said that disruptions at the port of Hodeida could “cause starvation on an unprecedented scale”. Closure of the port would put “the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in immediate danger while pushing millions more into famine, it added.

Earlier in September, the NGO said it had treated almost 400,000 children under the age of five for severe malnutrition so far in 2018, warning that more than 36,000 children could die before the end of the year.

The deadly conflict between Shia Houthi rebels and troops loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi has been going on since 2014. It has drowned the country and its five million children in utter poverty and famine. Earlier in September, the NGO said it had treated almost 400,000 children under the age of five for severe malnutrition so far in 2018, warning that more than 36,000 children could die before the end of the year.

“Millions of children do not know when or if their next meal will come,” the chief executive of Save the Children International, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said. Earlier in September, the NGO said it had treated almost 400,000 children under the age of five for severe malnutrition so far in 2018, warning that more than 36,000 children could die before the end of the year.

Rising food prices and the falling value of the Yemeni currency as a result of the conflict are putting more families at risk of food insecurity.

The other threat comes from fighting around the key port city of Hodeida, which is the entry point for most aid to the country’s rebel-held areas. The basic supplies that pass through it are needed to prevent famine and a recurrence of a cholera epidemic that affected a million people in 2017.

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