Warning that Ukraine war will worsen hunger in Yemen
(16 Mar 2022) Ghalib al-Najjar is unsure where his family's next meal will come from and the Yemeni father, his wife, and seven children are at risk of famine amid price hikes and a lack of humanitarian assistance. The 48-year-old is one of more than 4.2 million displaced because of the war in Yemen. He and his family are living in the Dharwan camp on the outskirts of rebel-held Sanaa after they fled fighting in their middle-class neighborhood of Attan more than four years ago. The war in Ukraine will have a severe impact on the humanitarian assistance provided to children in Yemen, a U.N. official said. "Operations around the world will be more expensive because of the increase on transportation cost" said Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF representative to Yemen. A United Nations appeal for Yemen Wednesday is aiming at raising $4.27 billion to alleviate what it describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The conference comes as world attention is gripped by the war in Ukraine, which has overshadowed other humanitarian crises across the world since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24 — raising concerns that that Yemen's plight may be forgotten. More than a dozen U.N. agencies and international aid groups said Monday that 161,000 people in war-torn Yemen are likely to experience famine over the second half of 2022 — a fivefold increase from the current figure. The stark warning came in a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, ahead of an annual fund-raising conference that the United Nations is hosting on Wednesday. The report stressed the war in Yemen is the main driver of hunger and the crisis is likely to deteriorate due to the war in Ukraine. Yemen depends almost entirely on food imports, with 30% of its wheat imports coming from Ukraine, the U.N. agencies said. The report underscores the dire situation in the poorest Arab nation that plunged into civil war for in 2014, when Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country's north, forcing the government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia. Last month the head of the World Food Program, David Beasley, warned that around 13 million people were heading toward starvation due to the protracted conflict and lack of funding. Beasley and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie who is special envoy for the U.N. on refugee issues, separately visited Yemen in the past two weeks to draw attention to the county's humanitarian crisis ahead of the fundraising conference on March 16. At least 17.4 million people need humanitarian assistance, and this number will increase to 19 million by the end of this year, according to the latest U.N. assessment. This number includes 2.2 million children who are acutely malnourished due to conflict, economic shocks and lack of humanitarian assistance. The U.N. World Food Program already reduced food rations for 8 million people in December. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
