UN: Yemen’s war pushed development back 21 years

A sanitary worker sits in the back of a truck during a fumigation in an area in Yemen’s southern coastal city of Aden on 3 May, 2020 [SALEH AL-OBEIDI/AFP via Getty Images]

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) yesterday announced that the civil war in Yemen has “substantially” deteriorated the country’s development.

“Yemen’s war pushed development back 21 years,” UNDP said on Twitter, adding that it the war “is disastrous in fighting communicable diseases like #COVID_19”, in reference to the coronavirus which has brought the global economy to its knees and forced many countries to impose nationwide lockdowns.

#Yemen's war pushed #development back 21 years & is disastrous in fighting communicable diseases like #COVID_19. Attention must be on urgent needs like making money to buy lifesaving food & health supplies to combat disease & enable #Yemenis to #buildbackbetter. #YemenCantWait pic.twitter.com/JC9mS2YFvS

— UNDP Yemen (@UNDPYemen) May 11, 2020

The humanitarian organisation called for international “attention on urgent needs like making money to buy lifesaving food & health supplies to combat the disease & enable Yemenis to build back better.”

So far, 56 Yemenis have contracted the coronavirus, nine of whom have died, according to official data by the Yemeni Health Ministry. Another two confirmed cases and a fatality were recently reported in the Houthi-controlled areas.

READ: UN warns 320,000 pregnant women at risk due to lack of funding in Yemen

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