For many people in Yemen, the taste of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat has become but a distant memory. It's not that these food items can't be found at the markets, but rather that they have become costly luxury goods. Prices have skyrocketed, meaning most people can no longer afford to buy food.
The civil war between Houthi rebels and a Saudi-backed government has led to spiraling food prices. As ever more people face starvation, aid groups warn the crisis could trigger the world's worst famine in 100 years. The cost of rice, beans, eggs and cooking oil has risen tremendously. The bombs keep raining down, and the cost of food continues to rise.
"Everything has become more expensive," Mirella Hodeib of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told DW. Hodeib stresses that aid agencies will not be able to end the humanitarian crisis. "They can neither take care of millions of hungry people in Yemen, nor single-handedly keep the country's health care sector operational."
Yemen has a population of some 30 million people. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) provides food for 8.5 million of them. Half a million children are severly malnourished, the UN has reported.
Aid agencies are warning that Yemen's already desperate situation is quickly growing even worse. "Tens of thousands of destitute families, who were barely able to buy what they needed just a few weeks ago, can no longer afford to feed themselves at all," Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, told The Guardian. "We are literally looking at hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people who may not survive."
Herve Verhoosel, the senior spokesperson for the WFP, warned that, "If the situation persists, we could see an additional 3.5 million severely food insecure Yemenis, or nearly 12 million in total, who urgently require regular food assistance to prevent them from slipping into famine-like conditions."
Before war broke out, the state was Yemen's biggest employer. Now, however, it has largely ceased paying peoples' wages. The private sector is in tatters, and the International Monetary Fund says that Yemen's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has more than halved in comparison to 2014. Even before fighting began, Yemen was one of the world's poorest countries. The Houthi government pays its fighters, but not civil servants or teachers. Doctors and their staff are dependent on the support of external organizations. The fighting has damaged much of the country's sanitation infrastructure, which can rarely be rebuilt. ICRC's Hodeib says this is causing the spread of preventable diseases like cholera, diphtheria and measles.
Suze van Meegen of the Norwegian Refugee Council doubts more money will bring improvements. "The crisis doesn't lie with money. It lies in stopping the war," she told The Guardian. People are starving to death in "very large numbers," she said.
She also criticized the British government: "There is a duplicity in the UK, for example, where the British government is providing a lot of money to help us reach people with aid but it could get more bang for its buck if it just stopped selling weapons to Saudi Arabia."
The civil war between Houthi rebels and a Saudi-backed government has led to spiraling food prices. As ever more people face starvation, aid groups warn the crisis could trigger the world's worst famine in 100 years. The cost of rice, beans, eggs and cooking oil has risen tremendously. The bombs keep raining down, and the cost of food continues to rise.
"Everything has become more expensive," Mirella Hodeib of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told DW. Hodeib stresses that aid agencies will not be able to end the humanitarian crisis. "They can neither take care of millions of hungry people in Yemen, nor single-handedly keep the country's health care sector operational."
Yemen has a population of some 30 million people. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) provides food for 8.5 million of them. Half a million children are severly malnourished, the UN has reported.
Aid agencies are warning that Yemen's already desperate situation is quickly growing even worse. "Tens of thousands of destitute families, who were barely able to buy what they needed just a few weeks ago, can no longer afford to feed themselves at all," Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, told The Guardian. "We are literally looking at hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people who may not survive."
Herve Verhoosel, the senior spokesperson for the WFP, warned that, "If the situation persists, we could see an additional 3.5 million severely food insecure Yemenis, or nearly 12 million in total, who urgently require regular food assistance to prevent them from slipping into famine-like conditions."
Before war broke out, the state was Yemen's biggest employer. Now, however, it has largely ceased paying peoples' wages. The private sector is in tatters, and the International Monetary Fund says that Yemen's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has more than halved in comparison to 2014. Even before fighting began, Yemen was one of the world's poorest countries. The Houthi government pays its fighters, but not civil servants or teachers. Doctors and their staff are dependent on the support of external organizations. The fighting has damaged much of the country's sanitation infrastructure, which can rarely be rebuilt. ICRC's Hodeib says this is causing the spread of preventable diseases like cholera, diphtheria and measles.
Suze van Meegen of the Norwegian Refugee Council doubts more money will bring improvements. "The crisis doesn't lie with money. It lies in stopping the war," she told The Guardian. People are starving to death in "very large numbers," she said.
She also criticized the British government: "There is a duplicity in the UK, for example, where the British government is providing a lot of money to help us reach people with aid but it could get more bang for its buck if it just stopped selling weapons to Saudi Arabia."
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