2.5mn children, 1.5mn mothers suffer from malnutrition in Yemen, rights group warns
In Yemen, some four million women and children are suffering from malnutrition due to the Saudi-led war on the impoverished country, a human rights organization has said.
In a statement on Thursday, cited by Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, the Yemen-based Entesaf Organization for Women and Child Rights said more than 2.3 million children under the age of five as well as 1.5 million pregnant and lactating mothers suffer from malnutrition.
According to the report, acute malnutrition is threatening the lives of some 632,000 children across Yemen.
The rights organization said over 3,850 children have been killed and more than 4,230 others wounded since the onset of Saudi Arabia’s imposed war in 2015.
According to the data, the war has also claimed the lives of at least 2,430 women while leaving nearly 2,860 others injured, which brings the total number of Yemeni women and children casualties to well over 6,200.
The rights group also reported that some 2.4 million children are out of school while 1.4 million of them are deprived of their most basic rights.
Saudi Arabia, supported by its regional and Western allies, launched the devastating campaign against its southern neighbor in March 2015. The aim was to return to power the former Riyadh-backed regime and crush the Ansarullah movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.
The war has stopped well shy of all of its goals, despite killing tens of thousands of Yemenis and turning the entire country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The blockade against Yemen has been maintained by the coalition even after a UN-sponsored truce came into effect in April. The truce has since been extended twice.
Recently, the Saudi-led coalition seized two more Yemen-bound oil tankers carrying thousands of tons of fuel for the conflict-plagued country in a flagrant breach of the UN-brokered ceasefire. This brought to twelve the number of fuel ships held by the coalition despite having undergone inspection.
Last month, the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said the truce, running from August 2 to October 2, included a commitment from the parties to intensify negotiations to reach an expanded truce agreement as soon as possible.
