50,000 Yemeni children are likely to die by the end of the year as a result of disease and starvation caused by the stalemated war in the country, Save the Children has warned. Humanitarian groups estimate that around 130 children are dying each day.
385,000 children are estimated to be suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Yemen and aid agencies believe that only around half of those are receiving treatment.
40,000 children are estimated to have died already this year as a result of severe acute malnutrition and Save the Children projects that figure will be above 50,000 by the end of the Christmas period. Food shortages in Yemen have filled overcrowded hospitals with malnourished children. Malnourished children are especially vulnerable to death as a result of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases.
“These deaths are as senseless as they are preventable. They mean more than a hundred mothers grieving for the death of a child, day after day,” said Tamer Kirolos, the group’s Yemen director. Both the UK and the US are supporting the Saudi-led military coalition as it bombs and blockades Yemen.
Dr Najla al-Sonboli, the head of pediatrics at Sanaa’s Sabeen hospital, told The Telegraph that she and her staff were seeing a new outbreak of diptheria, a deadly bacterial infection that builds in the back of a child’s throat. Diptheria is highly contagious.
385,000 children are estimated to be suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Yemen and aid agencies believe that only around half of those are receiving treatment.
40,000 children are estimated to have died already this year as a result of severe acute malnutrition and Save the Children projects that figure will be above 50,000 by the end of the Christmas period. Food shortages in Yemen have filled overcrowded hospitals with malnourished children. Malnourished children are especially vulnerable to death as a result of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases.
“These deaths are as senseless as they are preventable. They mean more than a hundred mothers grieving for the death of a child, day after day,” said Tamer Kirolos, the group’s Yemen director. Both the UK and the US are supporting the Saudi-led military coalition as it bombs and blockades Yemen.
Dr Najla al-Sonboli, the head of pediatrics at Sanaa’s Sabeen hospital, told The Telegraph that she and her staff were seeing a new outbreak of diptheria, a deadly bacterial infection that builds in the back of a child’s throat. Diptheria is highly contagious.
How many Brits care about Yemeni kids? Unfortunately, state terrorism is a bore that most (unlike those on the receiving end) can afford to ignore.
ReplyDeleteI think quite a number of people do care. But they are aware also of being powerless to impact greatly upon it as their elected representatives appear also powerless to deal wiht what is in effect a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
ReplyDeleteThe question is really do YOU care enough about it, to join with socialists for an end to all wars, by deed or proxy and all poverty absolute or relative, as they are essentially twin concomitants of the continuation of capitalism?