The UN has voiced alarm over severe food shortages across war-torn Yemen amid relentless Saudi attacks, saying the country is “one step” from famine.
Over 10 million Yemenis need basic healthcare and over 7.6 million “are severely food insecure,” said John Ging, director of operations at the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) on Tuesday.
This is "one step below the level of famine” on the international index of food insecurity, he added.
“So it's a very fragile situation, and it's a huge number of people that are in that status,” Ging, who just returned from Yemen, told a news conference.
“The nutrition situation in Yemen is also very acute,” Ging said, adding, “From January to April this year, over 56,000 children were found to be suffering from severe acute malnutrition.”
Yemen has a population of around 27.5 million and Ging said almost 180,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, but the UN has only been able to reach 32 percent of them.
The UN official said there has been “a shocking fall off” in support from the international donors over the last few months for the millions of Yemenis who need food, clean water and basic healthcare.
Ging said the UN appeal for $1.8 billion to help more than 13 million Yemenis this year has been just 16 percent funded.
The humanitarian situation in the already impoverished country has worsened since Saudi Arabia launched a military intervention in Yemen last March after Iran-supported Houthi rebels overran much of the country and forced the Saudi-backed government into exile.
