In Yemen, 20 million people are at risk of famine as fighting continues
- The world’s worst humanitarian crisis spiralled in Yemen after a Saudi-led coalition launched an offensive to support the government against Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in March 2015
Around 20 million Yemenis are food insecure, UN agencies said on Saturday, adding the conflict ravaging the impoverished country was the key driver behind rising hunger levels.
“As many as 20 million Yemenis are food insecure in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” a joint statement by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the children’s fund Unicef and the World Food Programme (WFP) said.
“Already 15.9 million people wake up hungry” in Yemen, it said, citing an analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a food security survey.
According to the IPC – whose analysis is necessary to decide whether to declare famine in countries – the 20 million people facing “severe acute food insecurity” represent 67 per cent of Yemen’s population.
“What the IPC tells us is alarming,” said Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.