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Blockade, violence push thousands more people in Yemen into hunger
Nearly 25,000 additional people are going to suffer hunger each day in Yemen as continued blockade and fighting restrict food, fuel and other vital supplies, Oxfam has warned
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early 25,000 additional people are going to suffer hunger each day in Yemen as continued blockade and fighting restrict food, fuel and other vital supplies, Oxfam has warned.
Oxfam said one in two people, or nearly 13 million people, were now struggling to find enough to eat, and half of them were on the brink of starvation. This is an increase of 2.3 million people since the escalation in fighting and beginning of the blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition in March.
The aid agency said that in a country that had historically faced food shortages, this was the
highest ever recorded number of people living in hunger.
'Since the start of the conflict every day that goes by without a ceasefire and full resumption of imports sees nearly 25,000 additional people going hungry in Yemen,' Oxfam country director in Yemen, Philippe Clerc, said on Tuesday.
'As the warring parties continue to ignore calls for a ceasefire, the average family in Yemen is left wondering when their next meal will be. If they survive the bombs, they're now running out of food," he said.
Oxfam reports that Saada governorate in the north is the most affected in the country, in which nearly 80 percent of its people are going hungry, 50 percent at a critical level.
'The scarcity of food is pushing prices beyond the reach of millions, in which many have been without income for months now,' the agency said.
Citing its collected assessment data in Hajjah governorate, Oxfam said families displaced by the conflict had few possessions, mainly livestock that they were forced to sell at prices that were well below the market value to buy food and other basic needs.
'This is a tell-tale sign that people are starting to face a
serious food crisis,' it said. (ebf)(+++)
