Life for the Yemeni people is a daily struggle to find the most basic of food, and medical care, leaving millions in a situation of acute starvation and risk of death.

Yemen famine – a country on the brink of starvation

To add to the already desperate situation, two-thirds of major UN aid programmes announced at the start of 2022 that they were having to reduce funding or close down completely. As a result, many aid agencies have been forced to scale back their operations. These disastrous policies have struck the Yemeni people hard, as they struggle to fill the gap left by these agencies, and it is only going to get worse as further funding cuts are on the horizon.

In practice, what this means is that while five million families will continue to receive the full ration of food parcels provided by the United Nations World Food Programme (which covers basic necessities – just), a further eight million Yemeni families will have their food rations cut even more, plunging them into food poverty and acute risk of starvation. They will receive barely half of their most basic daily nutrition needs, which is inevitably leading to an increase in malnutrition and premature deaths.

In numbers, the forecast is grim – over half the population – 16.2 million people, face acute starvation. Half of the children under the age of five (about 2.3 million and falling) are at risk of malnutrition.

Deepening economic crises

Yemeni’s problems are complex and deeply entrenched in civil conflict and corruption but, over the last 10 years, those problems have intensified to produce a cycle of violence, political upheaval, and institutional collapse. As a result, the country is operating under a beleaguered economic system that has seen massive currency devaluation and hyperinflation add to the overall rise in the cost of living, leaving many families destitute. The Yemen famine can be understood when you consider that the World Food Programme needs US$1.97 billion to deliver food to those families who are on the absolute brink of starvation.

In 2021, food prices more than doubled as currency rates dropped. If global food programmes struggle to feed the Yemeni people adequately, what hope do the people have of finding food for themselves? Increasingly these organisations are turning to grassroots charities such as Children of Adam to further assist how you can help Yemen through the worst of the crises.

A worsening medical crisis

Eroded by famine, conflict, and lack of investment, overrun by the effects of malnutrition on the general state of the population’s health, the Yemeni health service is barely functioning. As well as the effects of malnutrition and the added pressure of Covid19, the demographic most at risk are pregnant women.

It is estimated that there are five million women of childbearing age in Yemen, of which 1.7 million are pregnant or breast feeding at any one time. These women have little or no access to reproductive health services, including antenatal care, safe delivery, postnatal care, family planning, and emergency obstetric and newborn care. This crisis in care has led to:

• Over one million pregnant and breastfeeding women becoming malnourished, leading to newborns with stunted growth.
• One woman dying every two hours in Yemen during childbirth from almost entirely preventable causes.
• A maternal mortality of 164 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

As well as the overall risk to women and children, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis are struggling to deal with routine health issues that would normally be dealt with quickly and competently in wealthier countries. The country’s life expectancy is just 63.27 – significantly lower than the international average.

Shortage of care, lack of medicines, lack of a referral system, severe infrastructural damage, underfunding, and understaffing means that most Yemenis are restricted access to medical services, contributing to an increase in the death rates of those who would normally be successfully treated.

How you can help the people of Yemen

Since funding by the United Nations World Food Programme was cut, aid agencies are becoming ever more reliant on outside sources to help them supplement food rations and medical care that is being given to the Yemeni people. Yemen-focused charities are increasing their efforts to increase funding levels that can be spent on alleviating the Yemen famine crisis, increasing the levels of nutrition to a population that is fighting for its very survival.

Even a small increase will help the Yemeni children and women to fight the worst of malnutrition and start to rebuild health and immunity.

If you would like to help ease the desperate humanitarian crisis in Yemen, that so many millions of its people have unwittingly found themselves in, please donate as much as you can. You’ll be saving many lives.