Thursday, October 26, 2017

Yemen has not gone away

Yemen is suffering from a  brutal civil war that has led to catastrophic hunger and devastating cholera outbreaks. 

60 percent of the country's 28 million people being classified as "food insecure." At least 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished.

More than 2 million people have been displaced by conflict, including marginalized communities such as the "Muhammasheen," a minority tribe that originally migrated from Africa. Despite the civil war, many flee conflict in Somalia and head to Yemen, marking the convergence of two major migration crises in the Middle East nation. Yemen hosts more than 255,000 Somali refugees.

The number of suspected cholera cases exceeded more than 750,000, the WHO said. At least 2,135 people have died from the waterborne bacterial infection in Yemen this year. Although cholera can be easily treated, if left untreated, it can kill within hours. The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that cholera cases could hit 1 million before the end of the year.

 More than 11 million children require humanitarian aid, according to the UN humanitarian coordination agency. The country's education system is "on the brink of collapse," while children are dying of "preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory tract infections," the agency said in October.

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