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WHO: Funding shortages threaten lives of millions of Yemen children

Image of UN medical and food aid in Taiz, Yemen, on 4 March 2017 [Abdulnasser Alseddik/Anadolu Agency]

UN medical and food aid in Taiz, Yemen, on 4 March 2017 [Abdulnasser Alseddik/Anadolu Agency]

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned yesterday that a lack of funding is threatening the lives of millions of children in Yemen.

“Funding shortfalls prevent patients from getting free or subsidised treatment and put their lives at risk,” the organisation’s office in Yemen said on Twitter.

WHO stressed the need to meet pledges given in this regard so as to save the lives of Yemeni people.

UN agencies working in Yemen have already complained of a lack of funding limiting their ability to carry out many humanitarian and health programmes in the country.

“When money doesn’t come, people die.” – Lise Grande @UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen,” the international organisation warned in a tweet.

Impoverished Yemen has remained in a state of civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s embattled government.

According to UN officials, more than 90,000 people have been killed in the war, while more than 11 per cent of the country’s population has been displaced.

The violence has devastated the country’s basic infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.

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