The UN warned on Friday that at least 400,000 children in Yemen could die of starvation this year if the war doesn’t end and aid does not reach areas suffering severe food shortages.
A report released by four UN agencies projected that acute malnutrition in the country will rise by 22 percent from 2020, and 2.3 million children will endure acute malnutrition, with one out of six — 400,000 — expected to die if conditions don’t change. The report said about 1.2 million pregnant or breastfeeding women in Yemen could also face acute malnutrition.
The report was issued by the World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization. “These numbers are yet another cry for help from Yemen, where each malnourished child also means a family struggling to survive,” said David Beasley, the head of the WFP.
The report explained that in 2020, agencies in Yemen only received $1.9 billion of the $3.4 billion needed to operate, causing the shuttering of some food programs. “But there is a solution to hunger, and that’s food and an end to the violence,” Beasley said.
The alarming report comes after President Biden pledged he would end all US support for Saudi Arabia’s “offensive” operations in Yemen and halted planned bomb sales. Since 2015, the US-backed Saudi-led coalition has regularly targeted civilians and infrastructure in Yemen, including food supplies.
The Biden administration is also seeking a diplomatic solution to end the fighting in Yemen. Timothy Lenderking, Biden’s new special envoy for Yemen, is in Saudi Arabia this week to push for an end to the war.
The vicious bombing campaign has been coupled with a land, sea, and air blockade of Yemen. Questions remain over whether or not the US will still support the blockade.
UN exaggerates. Grossly. North Yemen is agricultural . It is an ancient agriculture, with many crops and reliable seasonal rains. And even though men are fighting, there are plenty of boys and older men at home, and women do not sit at home under veils but work the fields.
There are problems in Sana’a where granaries were destroyed in bombing and roads — always bad — got damaged , slowing supplies to cities. Hospital in Sana’a is damaged, and medicine scarce.
The main reason for this humanitarian impulse is the push to get UN officials all over Yemen as a part of any peace deal. Now, they are in Hodeidah, rationing supplies to Houthis. It was the only way the key port was allowed to transit food and medicine. But every time West was displeased with North, supplies stopped.
Nearly all UN officials are appointees from Western governments, and are their agents.
Food management becomes bribery process — open and unashamed. Food is given to politicians who are bribable, who then for a commission give it to wholesalers , then those sell it to retailers, and food ends in shops. Very, very small amount is distributed for free, and only in refugee camps. There are no refugee camps in North Yemen.
All USAID “aid” ends up in shops. Cans of oil, bags of rice, flour, sugar — all clearly display USAID, NOT TO BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED.
Humanitarianism is a big business. However, North Yemen has gone through hell, and will be less inclined to accept Western minders in humanitarian garb without serious oversight.
They have already been accused of blocking humanitarian aid, so they are experts at outsmarting the bleeding hearts profiteers.