WUNRN
World Food Programme - http://www.wfp.org/countries/yemen -
Yemen is in the
midst of a deteriorating humanitarian crisis with high food and fuel prices,
rising poverty, a breakdown of social services, diminishing resources, internal
conflict and political instability
YEMEN - SERIOUS FOOD CRISIS - 40% OF POPULATION - CRITICAL FOR CHILDREN, PREGNANT WOMEN
The United Nations warns of a
serious food crisis in
A United Nations (UN) report says that more than 40
percent of
July
17,2014 - According to the Comprehensive Food Security Survey, conducted by the
UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Global
Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate in most parts of Yemen is serious and at
emergency levels in other areas.
Nearly
70 percent of the people in the country’s northern governorate of Sa’ada and
about 10 percent of the residents of the eastern Al Mahra are food-insecure. In
all, about five million Yemenis face food insecurity.
The
survey also suggested that the rate of chronic malnutrition among children
under the age of five is greater than the international “critical” benchmark.
The
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund has also said that a
great number of Yemeni children are showing signs of stunting.
“Of
the estimated 4.5 million children under the age of five, more than 2 in 5 are
stunted while almost 13 per cent are acutely malnourished,” Acting UNICEF
Representative in Yemen Jeremy Hopkins said.
“Stunting
(or stunted growth) is what happens to a child’s brain and body when they don’t
get the right kind of food or nutrients in their first 1,000 days of life. The
damage is irreversible. That child will never learn, nor earn, as much as he or
she could have if properly nourished in early life,” the UN body explained.