13 million people in Yemen struggling to find enough to eat, Oxfam says

According to Taghrib news reporter(TNA) in London, based on new Oxfam’s report, Since March, nearly 25,000 people a day have slipped into hunger in Yemen, and every second person – or nearly 13 million people – is now struggling to find enough to eat.

Guardian newspaper wrote in this regard: New details of the depth of the humanitarian crisis were released after the Saudi-led coalition, which is fighting Shia Houthi rebels, announced a five-day ceasefire, which started on 26 July, to allow in relief.

Oxfam said on 28 July that 6.5 million people are on the brink of starvation. This marks an increase of 2.3 million since March when the Saudi-led coalition, which has the backing of the US and UK, started air strikes and a de facto naval blockade of the country’s ports.

Over the past four months, Yemeni civilians have paid a horrendous price with nearly 1,700 people killed and more than 3,800 injured. On 24 July, at least 120 people were killed when air strikes hit a residential area in the town of Mokha on the Red Sea coast.

The UN children’s agency says at least 365 children have been killed since late March, and regional director Peter Salama said the conflict had compounded the misery of children living in the poorest country in the region, with millions also facing increased risk of contracting diseases like measles, malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Oxfam said that since March, only 20% of domestic food needs had entered Yemen, and an extra 650,000 children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers have become malnourished, bringing the total number to 1.5 million. Yemen usually imports around 90% of its food needs, and even before the fighting escalated, it had one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world.