5.2 million children at famine risk in Yemen

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More than five million children are at risk of famine in Yemen as the ongoing war causes food and fuel prices to soar across the country, a charity Save the Children warned on Wednesday.

Disruption to supplies coming through the embattled Red Sea port of Hodeida could "cause starvation on an unprecedented scale," the NGO said in a new report.

Save the Children said an extra one million children now risk falling into famine as prices of food and transportation rise, bringing the total to 5.2 million.

Any type of closure at the port "would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in immediate danger while pushing millions more into famine," it added.

Displaced Yemenis receiving food provided by a charity in Sanaa, Yemen, July 9, 2018. /VCG Photo

Impoverished Yemen has been mired in deadly conflict between Houthi rebels and troops loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since 2014.

A Saudi-led alliance intervened in 2015 in a bid to bolster the president, accusing Iran of backing the Houthis, but nearly 10,000 people have since been killed.

Deadly clashes resumed around the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida following the collapse of talks in Geneva earlier this month.

"Millions of children don't know when or if their next meal will come," said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Children International.

"This war risks killing an entire generation of Yemen's children who face multiple threats, from bombs to hunger to preventable diseases like cholera," she added.

The United Nations has warned that any major fighting in Hodeida could halt food distributions to eight million Yemenis dependent on them for survival.

(Cover: A Yemeni child waits to fill bottles with clean water provided by charity groups, Sanaa, Yemen, July 17, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): AFP