YEMEN: A further one million children at risk of famine as food and fuel prices soar and humanitarian access in danger

Save the Children urges Women Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Canada to address the Yemen crisis as risks of unprecedented starvation increases from lack of access to food, fuel and aid supplies coming through Hodeidah port.

Toronto, September 19 – Save the Children is urging the Women Foreign Ministers meeting in Montreal this week to urgently address the crisis in Yemen. Warning that an additional one million severely food insecure girls and boys in Yemen risk falling into famine as families struggle to access basic food and health facilities in the conflict-torn country. This brings the total number of children in Yemen at risk of famine to 5.2 million.

As Hodeidah experiences renewed fighting there is a real risk its port – a vital lifeline for goods and aid for 80 per cent of Yemen’s population – could be damaged or temporarily closed, reducing the supply of available food and fuel as well as driving up prices even further. Already, more than two-thirds (64.5 per cent) of Yemen’s population don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Lack of access to supplies from Hodeidah port would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in immediate danger while pushing millions more into famine. The United Nations has warned that failure to keep food, fuel and aid flowing into Yemen, particularly through the port city Hodeidah, could result in one of the worst hunger crises in living history.

Bill Chambers, President and CEO if Save the Children, said:

“As Canada prepares to host the first-ever Women Foreign Minister’s Meeting to advance global peace and security, the crisis in Yemen – where the lack of peace and security has already led to unimaginable suffering and now starvation – must be on the agenda.

“We urge Minister Freeland and her counterparts meeting in Montreal to condemn the escalation of attacks on Hodeidah, and to make every effort to allow for the continuation of investigations into potential breaches of humanitarian law. What happens next in Hodeidah has a direct impact on girls, boys, men and women across the country. Even the smallest disruption to food, fuel and aid supplies through its vital port could mean death for hundreds of thousands of malnourished children. This must not be allowed to deteriorate further.

“Severely malnourished children are 12 times more likely to die from preventable diseases like pneumonia, measles, cholera or diphtheria. Children who are stunted suffer physical and often irreversible long-term cognitive damage. It’s essential that children get the food they need to survive and thrive.

“This war risks killing an entire generation of Yemen’s children who face multiple threats, from bombs to hunger to preventable diseases like cholera. All parties must agree on a political solution to this conflict and give children hope of a brighter future. Let the immense suffering of children in Yemen end.”

Save the Children warned a depreciating currency and collapsing economy are pushing communities to the brink of starvation. On average, food prices have soared 68 per cent since 2015. The Yemeni Rial (YER) has depreciated nearly 180 per cent in the same period. The price of fuel commodities like petrol, diesel and cooking gas has increased by 25 per cent between November 2017 and September 2018.

Though there are food supplies in the marketplace for now, families are unable to afford even the most basic items like bread, milk or eggs, making an already precarious situation even worse. In some parts of the country, the price of food has doubled in just a matter of days. Our teams have heard that some households are being forced to make impossible choices like deciding to take a malnourished baby to hospital at the expense of feeding the rest of the family.

A recent UN survey of 2,098 respondents across Yemen confirms the extent of the problem. An alarming 98 per cent of households said food was their primary expenditure. Equally alarming, 93 per cent named high commodity prices as their primary challenge, including food and fuel, while 72 per cent of households said they’re cutting down on food consumption to cope with a lack of income.

Nutrition surveys conducted during the first half of 2018 confirm alarming rates of malnutrition. In Hodeidah for example, home to Yemen’s largest commercial port and the primary gateway for food and fuel to the rest of the country, 1 in every 20 children under five years old is suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Half of all children in Yemen are stunted.

The brutal conflict in Yemen means communities across the country face huge barriers that prevent them from seeking care for their sick and undernourished children, including financial obstacles. The root causes of chronic and acute malnutrition and the factors leading to it are complex. But the current conflict creates conditions where malnutrition can take hold, exacerbated by poverty, lack of access to aid and low socioeconomic status. Women and girls and boys suffer disproportionately.

ENDS

Spokespeople are available in Yemen and Canada.

For more information or to arrange an interview kindly contact Jessica Bryant

jbryant@savethechildren.ca or +1 647 973 1185

NOTES TO EDITORS

• Since the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen began in March 2015 it has become three times more expensive for Yemenis to buy foreign currency. More information on the depreciation of the Yemeni Rial can be found here.
• The UN’s humanitarian update for the period 27 August – 6 September warns that an additional two million Yemenis are at risk of famine as a result of the currency collapse and price hikes. Based on the credible assumption that approximately half of Yemen’s population is under 18 years, Save the Children estimates that one million additional children under 18 years are at heightened risk of famine.
• According to the UN’s World Food Programme, 8.4 million people in Yemen are severely food insecure and at risk of being pushed into famine. Based on this, Save the Children estimates that 4.2 million children under 18 years are at risk of famine in Yemen.
• The UN estimates that 17.8 million people in Yemen require emergency food assistance. World Bank data shows Yemen’s population as 27.58 million (2016). Based on this, 64.5 per cent (or two-thirds) of the population requires emergency food assistance.
• Earlier this month Save the Children warned that with a 2018 caseload of nearly 400,000 severely malnourished children under five years in Yemen, more than 36,000 children would likely die from extreme hunger this year. For more information read full report here.
• The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is widely acknowledged as the worst in the world. 60 per cent of the country’s population is hungry, including 8.4 million acutely food insecure people who do not know where their next meal will come from and an additional 10 million people who could slip into pre-famine conditions by the end of year unless the conflict ends. At least 1.8 million children and 1.1 million pregnant or breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished, including 400,000 children under the age of five who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
• Save the Children has over 50 years of experience working in Yemen. Operational since 1963, the charity was the first international aid group in Yemen. We work nationally and locally to promote and protect children’s rights, with programmes in education, protection, health, nutrition, water, livelihoods, and food security. More information here.