Yemen: millions of children at risk of famine amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Some 2.4 million children under five, almost half of all children in this age group in Yemen, are at risk of hunger and malnutrition because of the shortage of humanitarian funding in the midst of the pandemic, UNICEF warned this week. In a statement, UNICEF said that some 30,000 children under five could suffer from severe and "life-threatening" acute malnutrition in the next six months, bringing the figure to 2.4 million - an increase of nearly 20 per cent.

The organization said that after more than five years of war, "as Yemen's devastated health system and infrastructure struggles to cope with the coronavirus, the already dire situation for children is likely to deteriorate significantly". He noted that Yemen's health system is "closer to collapse" as only "half" of the health facilities are operational and there is a "severe shortage" of drugs, equipment and medical personnel. 

"If we do not receive urgent funding, children will be pushed to the brink of starvation and many will die. The international community will send a message that children's lives in a nation devastated by conflict, disease and economic collapse simply don't matter," UNICEF Representative in Yemen Sara Beysolow Nyanti said in the statement. 

UNICEF is requesting $461 million for its humanitarian programmes in the Arab country, with an additional $53 million just for the response to the coronavirus health emergency. However, the organization noted with regret that so far they have only received 10 per cent of the money required to address VIDOC-19 and 39 per cent of the money needed for the humanitarian response in the country. 

According to a UNICEF report, 9.58 million Yemeni children do not have sufficient access to safe water, sanitation or hygiene, which the UN agency says is "fuelling the spread of COVID-19" in the country. 

Yemen has recorded 1,019 cases of coronavirus and 275 deaths, a figure that the World Health Organization warns may be higher. In addition, according to UNICEF, 7.8 million children do not have access to education and some 3,487 children, some of them under 10 years old, have been "recruited and used by armed forces and groups in the last five years," according to UN data. According to UN data, even before the arrival of the disease, more than 80 per cent of the approximately 28 million Yemenis needed humanitarian aid to meet some of their basic needs.