161,000 Yemenis to face famine in 2022
Around 2.2 million children, 538,000 of which severely malnourished, and 1.3 million women could be acutely malnourished by the end of 2022.
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Ten-year-old Ghazi Saleh, who weighs just ten kilograms, lies on a bed at Al-Mudhafar hospital in Taiz, Yemen (AFP)
Around 161,000 Yemenis are likely to face mass famine in 2022, a warning which came from a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC. This comes before an UN-hosted fund-raising conference on Wednesday.
Read more: UN: 8 million Yemenis could lose aid in March
The IPC consists of 15 UN agencies and humanitarian organizations working in Yemen - all funded by the European Union, USAID, and UKAID - who have all had a hand in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, including the maintenance of the blockade which has been depriving Yemenis of food, medicine, and other basic necessities.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with the support of the United States and the United Kingdom, continue to wage war and siege on Yemen. Despite that the war has been ongoing since 2015 with international support and heavy arms sales from countries like Canada, the war has reached a stalemate and caused a humanitarian crisis that knows no end.
The IPC report says that out of a population of more than 30 million, 19 million Yemenis won't be likely to ensure their minimum food needs between June and December.
David Beasley, head of the World Food Program, said "These harrowing figures confirm that we are on a countdown to catastrophe in Yemen and we are almost out of time to avoid it," calling for funding to avoid "imminent disaster and save millions."
Around 2.2 million children, 538,000 of which are severely malnourished, and 1.3 million women could be acutely malnourished by the end of 2022, according to the report.
"More and more children are going to bed hungry in Yemen,'' said Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF. "This puts them at increased risk of physical and cognitive impairment, and even death.''
The war on Yemen is the main driving force behind the hunger crisis - the situation is likely to worsen with the most recent war on Ukraine, as 30% of Yemen's wheat imports come from Ukraine.
