Jemen: Die Hälfte der Bevölkerung leidet an Nahrungsmittelknappheit

Vergessen ist seit langem der Konflikt im Jemen, dabei leidet die Bevölkerung seit Jahren unter diesem Stellvertreterkrieg zwischen dem Iran und Saudi Arabien.

Jedes Jahr zur Weihnachtszeit schafft der Jemen es dann doch noch mal in die Medien und zwar seit Jahren mit den selben Horrormeldungen über Leid, Unterernährung und dem Elend, in dem die unzähligen Binnenvertrieben im Land leben müssen:

According to the WFP, 49 percent of Yemeni households reported inadequate food consumption during that month.

The agency highlighted that in 2022 food costs increased by 21 percent in government-controlled areas and 18 percent in areas held by the Houthi rebels.

A few days ago, the executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Catherine Russel, denounced that more than 11,000 children died or were injured in the war. The figure is an estimate, because “the number is likely to be much higher,” Russell stressed.

UNICEF highlighted that more than 23.4 million Yemenis, three quarters of the national population, require assistance and protection, and 17.8 million lack access to water, sanitation and hygiene services. According to estimates 2.2 million children are undernourished, including nearly 540,000 children less than five years old suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

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 According to other United Nations' numbers, around 375,000 people, or 1.25% of the total population, have been killed by wartime violence since 2015. More still have died due to hunger or disease in Yemen.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs continues to call the situation in Yemen the worst humanitarian disaster in the world, one that is further exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and resulting grain shortages. Until the Ukraine war started, Yemen was importing almost half of its grain from Russia and Ukraine.

Little is likely to change in the near future in terms of the Houthis' dominance, Heibach continued. "They have consolidated their power in the north and that won't change any time soon," he noted. "Everything the Saudi Arabia-led coalition has done has ultimately only led to a further expansion of the Houthis' power."