Hungry in Yemen facing ‘catastrophe’

Twenty million people in war-torn Yemen are hungry – a staggering 70 per cent of the population and a 15 per cent increase from last year – and for the first time 250,000 are facing ‘‘catastrophe,’’ the U.N. humanitarian chief said yesterday.

Mark Lowcock, who recently returned from Yemen, told reporters there has been ‘‘a significant, dramatic deterioration’’ of the humanitarian situation in the country and ‘‘it’s alarming.’’

He said that for the first time, 250,000 Yemenis are in Phase 5 on the global scale for classifying the severity and magnitude of food insecurity and malnutrition — the severest level, defined as people facing ‘‘starvation, death and destitution.’’

Lowcock, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said those 250,000 Yemenis facing ‘‘catastrophe’’ are overwhelmingly concentrated in four provinces ‘‘where the conflict is raging quite intensely’’ – Taiz, Saada, Hajja and Hodeida.

The only other country where anyone is in Phase 5 is South Sudan, with 25,000 people affected, he added.

Lowcock said there are also nearly 5 million Yemenis in Phase 4, which is defined as the ‘‘emergency’’ level, in which people suffer from severe hunger and ‘‘very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality’’ or an extreme loss of income that will lead to severe food shortages.

He said these people live in 152 of Yemen’s 333 districts, a sharp increase from 107 districts last year.

Large numbers of people ‘‘have moved into a worse category of food insecurity’’ as a result of the war, Lowcock said.

The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital of Sanaa by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who toppled the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

A Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s internationally recognised government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.

Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties and killed thousands of Yemeni civilians.

The Houthis have fired long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia and targeted vessels in the Red Sea. –AP

AP A doctor measures the arm of malnourished girl at the Aslam Health Centre, Hajjah, Yemen. 70 per cent of the population is hungry according to a UN report.