War in Yemen has pushed six million to the brink of starvation, Oxfam warns

[Sally]

It's too bad that both sides couldn't agree to stop fighting on the weekends so that aid could get through to feed these starving people. They could start in again at each other on Monday.


War in Yemen has pushed six million to the brink of starvation, Oxfam warns

The UK is helping to arm Saudi planes attacking rebel targets in the country

ALISTAIR DAWBER

Tuesday 28 July 2015

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The four-month-old war in Yemen has pushed more than six million people to the brink of starvation, according to a report.

The full extent of the humanitarian crisis in the country, where the UK is helping to arm Saudi planes attacking rebel targets, emerged as a five-day ceasefire to allow aid workers access to some of the worst affected areas was broken within minutes by shelling from both sides.

The shocking new figures on food shortages come from Oxfam, which says that since the Saudi-led coalition began its aerial onslaught in March, an extra 25,000 people each day are going without food and other basic provisions, with 13 million – more than half Yemen’s population – now facing shortages. The fighting has led to a humanitarian disaster that threatens to produce the highest ever recorded number of people living in hunger, according to the charity.


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War in Yemen has pushed six million to the brink of starvation Oxfam warns - Middle East - World - The Independent

 

[waltky]

Starving children in Africa need food...

Starvation threatens 6m children in Africa: charity
Sun, Jan 29, 2017 - DROUGHTS’ REPERCUSSIONS: Save the Children said that 15 million people across three countries are in crisis and in need of help after below-average rainfall

Hunger, malnutrition and death threaten 6.5 million children in the impoverished drylands of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya due to back-to-back droughts, a charity said on Friday, with spring rains also predicted to be poor. Repeated rain failures have pushed 15 million people across the three countries into crisis, and in need of aid, as their animals are dying and water is in short supply, Save the Children said. “The situation for already desperate children and families in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya will only get worse — leaving millions at risk of hunger, and even death,” said John Graham, the charity’s Ethiopia country director. The next rainy season is likely to bring more below-average rainfall across the region, experts predict.

About 500,000 children already have severe acute malnutrition, Save the Children said, which means they risk dying without emergency intervention. Donors, political leaders and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are meeting at the African Union (AU) summit which opens tomorrow in Ethiopia. Guterres was the UN’s refugee chief during Somalia’s 2011 famine, in which 260,000 died due to drought, conflict and a ban on food aid in territory held by the militant group al-Shabaab. The UN warned this month that Somalia, crippled by decades of war, risks slipping back into famine as 5 million people, or more than four out of 10 residents, do not have enough food.

Fighting between al-Shabaab and Somalia’s AU-backed government continues. AU and Somalian troops have driven al-Shabaab from major urban strongholds and ports, but they have often struggled to defend smaller, more remote areas. Thousands of Somalians are on the move in search of food and water, many crossing into Ethiopia for assistance, charities say. Save the Children said there are high rates of malnutrition among children on arrival in Ethiopia’s vast Dollo Ado camp. Many Somalians have been living in exile for three decades, with almost 1 million in refugee camps in nearby Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Uganda, where food is also in short supply due to lack of funding.

In Ethiopia, hard hit by drought last year, almost 6 million people need aid. The Kenya Red Cross Society launched an appeal to the public on Friday for 1 billion Kenyan shillings (US$9.6 million) to provide food vouchers and cash to thousands of hungry families in the north and along the coast. As livestock deaths are increasing, weak animals will also be slaughtered and the meat donated to schools, orphans, the elderly and sick, it said, adding that the number of Kenyans without enough to eat would almost double by April to 2.4 million from 1.3 million. “The effects of the drought are escalating,” Kenya Red Cross Society secretary-general Abbas Gullet said. “This should worry us all.”

Starvation threatens 6m children in Africa: charity - Taipei Times