UN aid chief: Yemen faces worsening famine

NEW YORK: International aid agencies are losing the fight against famine in Yemen, where 3.5 million people may soon be added to the eight million Yemenis already facing starvation, the United Nations aid chief warned Friday.

A sharp drop in the value of Yemen’s currency that sent fuel prices spiralling, compounded with renewed fighting, led to a worsening of what the UN already considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“We are losing the fight against famine,” Mark Lowcock, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council.

“We are already seeing pockets of famine-like-conditions, including cases where people are eating leaves because they have no other form of sustenance,” he said.

The council was meeting at Britain’s request to discuss the worsening crisis in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting Iran-aligned rebels who control the capital Sanaa.

Lowcock said the situation had deteriorated “in an alarming way” and that the crisis may be approaching “a tipping point, beyond which it will be impossible to prevent massive loss of life”.

The stark warning came ahead of next week’s gathering of world leaders at the UN for the annual debate on global issues that will feature meetings on Yemen.

After a lull in fighting, Saudibacked government forces this week launched a series of attacks on rebel-held Hodeida, the Red Sea port city that also serves as the entry point for humanitarian aid deliveries.