Over 80,000 Kids under the Age of Five Have Died of Starvation in Yemen, UN Chief Says

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says tens of thousands of children under the age of five have died of starvation in Yemen ever since Saudi Arabia and a number of its allies launched an atrocious military aggression against the impoverished country nearly four years ago, Press TV reported.

 “Children did not start the war in Yemen, but they are paying the highest price.  Some 360,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, fighting for their lives every day.  And one credible report put the number of children under 5 who have died of starvation at more than 80,000,” Guterres told a donor conference in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday.

 He went on to say that continued Yemen conflict has significantly increased the number of internally displaced people to 3.3 million, and the figure marks a sharp uptick from 2.2 million recorded last year.

The UN chief warned of the worsening health and humanitarian situation in Yemen, saying, “Over half of all health facilities are out of action, and nearly 20 million people lack access to adequate health care.”

 “In 2017, the worst cholera epidemic in history reached unprecedented levels as water supplies and sanitation and public health services collapsed… Almost 18 million Yemenis still do not have adequate access to safe drinking water or sanitation,” Guterres noted.

The UN secretary-general added that Yemen’s crisis has taken a heavy toll on the education of students in the war-torn country.

  “Two million children in Yemen are out of school, and 2,000 schools have been directly affected by the conflict:  damaged, destroyed, converted to shelter for the displaced or occupied by armed groups.  And half of the teachers in Yemen have not been paid in over two years,” he said.

Guterres touched on the truce deal in the strategic Yemeni port city of Hudaydah, emphasizing that progress has been slow in implementing a troop withdrawal.

Delegates from the Houthi Ansarullah movement and representatives loyal to former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi held face-to-face peace negotiations in Rimbo, north of the Swedish capital city of Stockholm, late last year. The talks resulted in the announcement of a break-through agreement.

The document includes three provisions: a ceasefire along the Hudaydah front and the redeployment of armed forces out of the city and its port; an agreement on prisoner exchange; and a statement of understanding on the southern Yemeni city of Ta’izz.

 H.M