UN: 16m Yemenis will suffer from hunger this year

Some 16 million people in Yemen will suffer from hunger this year; an issue that must be taken into account when dealing with the war in the country, a UN official has warned.

Speaking to Al Jazeera news site, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said some 50,000 people are already starving to death while five million others are one step away.

According to the UN official, Yemen imports 90 per cent of its food, and the previous US administration’s decision to designate the Houthi group as a terrorist organisation would have affected that, because almost all of this food is brought through commercial channels, while aid agencies give people vouchers or cash to buy food imported commercially.

The new American administration or President Joe Biden recently reversed the designation amid warnings from humanitarian organisations that the decision would negatively affect millions of civilians in a country which is already suffering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

UN: At least 400,000 Yemen children under 5 could die of starvation this year