Yemen’s coast faces rising malnutrition
(16 Sep 2016) Five-year-old Salem sits on a hospital bed in Hodeidah, in a crowded ward surrounded by nearly a dozen other children, who like him, bear the signs of prolonged hunger. His emaciated frame can’t sustain much movement. His mouth and eyes dry due to the severity of his malnutrition, he licks his lips repeatedly. After recovering from a previous bout of malnutrition, his mother says he recently relapsed again. He’s been back in the hospital for over a week. She’s not sure of what to do next. "From the day I gave birth to my child till now we are suffering from hunger and torture and his condition is not stable. He got better for a short period of time and then he relapsed again and we don’t have anyone and no one is standing with us. It’s difficult,” says Salem’s mother Adeed Mohamed The ongoing war in Yemen has made what was already a difficult task for Salem’s family of providing for him a near impossible one. At the only central hospital in the city, emaciated children wearing nothing but diapers twice their size cry tearlessly. Even before the war in Yemen broke out in March last year, the Red Sea port of Hodeidah was one of the poorest cities in the Arab world’s most impoverished nation. With the start of the war, a Saudi-led coalition of nine countries bombed wooden boats suspected of smuggling weapons to rival Shiite rebels, in control of the capital. Along with the boats, the airstrikes struck storage areas for fish, markets, bridges, and roads leaving many jobless in an isolated city, helpless to provide for their families in the face of insanely high prices and a fuel shortage. The coalition believes that the boats are being used by Houthis in receiving smuggled weapons from Iran. For years, islands scattered in the Red Sea facing the Yemeni shores were used as a transit point for smugglers of weapons and drugs. Caught in the conflict, an estimated 100,000 children of Hodeidah are at risk of severe malnutrition, according to the UN. Doctor Awsan Al-Ibsi says they’ve seen an increase in cases of malnutrition since the war began, with a greater instance of relapses. Salem, who he says seems to have no other health issues except malnutrition, is responding to treatment, and has become more alert and gained weight, but that it’s unclear how full a recovery can take place while his family facing such poverty. The war in Yemen pits Houthis and allied forces against the Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally-recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who in Riyadh, self-exile since the start of the war. Houthis control most of the northern region after they were pushed out of the southern cities like Aden and Lahj. The conflict left some 10,000 people dead or injured, 3 million displaced, and more than half of the 26 million population are food insecure. Before the war, Hodeidah’s hot weather in the summer (which surpasses 40 C) and humidity are said to quiet appetite of its people and increase consumption of water, all in all, leaving children underweight. Salem and his family hail from a village called Baqea, some 85 kilometres (53 miles) from the provincial capital of Hodeidah. The village encompasses 320 houses built of sticks and straws. Inside each dwelling lives a family or two where each is composed of an average of seven family members. Doctor and health worker Khaled Ahayef says that the villagers, many of whom were displaced from their homes after an airstrike hit the port village, are living without proper toilets or sanitation, and many are suffering from diarrhoea. He says they need humanitarian assistance urgently. 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...
