Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Save the Children in Yemen

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.

Save the Children has warned an extra one million children now risk falling into famine - total of 5.2 million children in Yemen now face famine.
"Millions of children don't know when or if their next meal will come," the chief executive of Save the Children International, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said. "In one hospital I visited in north Yemen, the babies were too weak to cry, their bodies exhausted by hunger. She added, "This war risks killing an entire generation of Yemen's children who face multiple threats, from bombs to hunger to preventable diseases like cholera,"

Food prices  are 68% more expensive than when the war began. The Yemeni Riyal has lost almost 180% of its value over the same period. Earlier this month, the currency reached its lowest value in history.

The war has led to severe delays in paying the salaries of teachers and public servants, with some people receiving no wages for almost two years.

Fears also remain of potential damage to or a blockade of Hudaydah's port as a result of the fighting. The basic supplies that pass through it are needed to prevent famine and a recurrence of a cholera epidemic that affected a million people last year.

Earlier this month, Save the Children 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.

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