Half of Yemen under-fives face acute malnutrition: UN

DUBAI: About 400,000 children under the age of five are in danger of dying of acute malnutrition in war-torn and impoverished Yemen this year, UN agencies warned on Friday.

They said half of those in the most vulnerable age bracket, or 2.3 million small children, are projected to suffer from severe malnutrition. "These numbers are yet another cry for help from Yemen where each malnourished child also means a family struggling to survive," World Food Programme chief David Beasley said in a joint statement.

The number of Yemeni children in danger of death from lack of food has risen to 400,000, an increase of 22 percent over 2020. "More children will die with every day that passes without action," said Henrietta Fore, head of the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.

"Humanitarian organisations need urgent predictable resources and unhindered access to communities on the ground to be able to save lives." The UN agencies warned that about 1.2 million pregnant or breastfeeding women are also expected to suffer from extreme malnutrition in 2021. "The crisis in Yemen is a toxic mix of conflict, economic collapse and a severe shortage of funding to provide the life-saving help that’s desperately needed," said Beasley.