Sanaa, January 31: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that about half a million of Yemeni children are at risk of dying by the turn of 2012 over severe famine and malnutrition.
“500,000 of these children are at the risk of dying or at the risk of being physically and mentally, cognitive impaired,” UNICEF’s regional director Maria Calivis said in a press conference held in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, to discuss the looming humanitarian crisis.
Calivis’s remarks come after visiting Yemen to see first-hand the impact of malnutrition on children’s health in the crisis-hit country.
She also warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in Yemen, saying a year of political turmoil has doubled the number of malnourished children in the country.
“Conflict, poverty and drought, compounded by the unrest of the previous year, the high food and fuel prices, and the breakdown of social services, are putting children’s health at great risks and threatening their very survival,” she noted.
With 58 percent of children stunted, Yemen has the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition among children in the world after Afghanistan.
Shortage of clean water, sanitation and foodstuffs has doubled the number of children affected with malnutrition in the country.
UNICEF has asked for USD 50 million to be able to meet children’s urgent humanitarian needs in 2012.
——Agencies