October 28, 2020

Anna Murray 

Around the world, children under five are confronted with the issues of malnutrition in some areas. The latest report from the United Nations indicated that parts of Yemen are facing the severe situation of food crisis. This is also a warning sign for world leaders to take immediate actions to solve this crisis.

According to the latest report of Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), children under the age of five are suffering from the dire malnutrition and the highest records occur in the northern parts of Yemen. Females are also influenced by the insufficient food crisis. About a quarter-million breast-feeding women are in need of malnutrition treatment. Philippe Duamelle, representative of the United Nations Children's Fund in Yemen, stated that acute malnutrition would cause irreplaceable damage to the brain and the cognitive capacity of children. 

This report showed a 10 percent increase in cases of malnutrition and 15.5 percent increase in acute cases of malnutrition. U.N. experts stated that Yemen confronted the most severe situation of malnutrition because of multiple factions including escalating conflict, declining economy, and devastating pandemic of COVID-19. Lise Grande, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, stated that UN has begun to warn about the food security issues of Yemen since July, 2020.

This is an urgent issue to tackle with. Funding is still a challenge at this post-pandemic phase. UN is still trying to offer humanitarian assistance to help the children and women in Yemen. Otherwise, Yemen might lose the entire younger generation in this food security crisis.  

Photo:Webshot.