![Children are seen at the Ajlaniye Refugee Camp in Hadramut City, Yemen on July 02, 2023. [Ali Ebubekir Tokcan - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AA-20230703-31577615-31577604-SOMALI_REFUGEES_STRUGGLE_TO_SURVIVE_UNDER_DIFFICULT_CONDITIONS_IN_YEMEN.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The West Coast region of Yemen is “on the verge of catastrophe” amid severe and acute malnutrition, UNICEF said on Tuesday.
“We’ve seen figures of 33 per cent severe and acute malnutrition in certain areas, especially on the West Coast, which is where I was in Hudaydah, and that is on the verge of a catastrophe,” UNICEF Yemen Representative Peter Hawkins told a UN briefing in Geneva. “It’s not a humanitarian crisis. It’s not an emergency. It is a catastrophe where thousands will die,” he warned.
Hawkins stressed that one in two children 5 years old and younger in the country are acutely malnourished and, among them, over 537,000 suffer from severe acute malnutrition, describing it as “a condition that is agonising, life-threatening and entirely preventable.”
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Pointing out that malnutrition weakens immune systems, stunts growth and robs children of their potential, Hawkins said that, “In Yemen, it’s not just a health crisis, it is a death sentence for thousands.”
Equally alarming, he added, is the fact that 1.4 million pregnant and lactating women are malnourished.
UNICEF needs an additional $157 million for its response in 2025 as the current appeal is only 25 per cent funded, said the UN official. He urged all parties involved in the conflict in Yemen to allow the unimpeded delivery of aid and allow humanitarians to save lives.
“We call for the release of detained UN staff and other humanitarian workers,” concluded Hawkins. “And, importantly, for the conflict to cease.”
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