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UN: one child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen

September 26, 2018 at 9:59 am

A malnourished baby receives medical treatment at al Sabeen Maternal Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen [Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]

At least one child dies every ten minutes as a result of the conflict in Yemen, a senior UN official said.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, warned at the end of a high-level meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that ten million more Yemenis will face pre-famine conditions by the end of this year if the status quo does not change.

She explained that three quarters of Yemen’s population need some form of protection and assistance.

For his part, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, said the humanitarian situation in Yemen has reached extremely dangerous levels. “I will ask you for resources to cover our humanitarian operations, so that the suffering of the Yemeni people will not continue,” he said.

The United Nations has launched an appeal to donor countries and institutions to increase financial support to cover what it has termed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

READ: Yemen war a ‘living hell’ for children – UNICEF