Some 85,000 Yemeni children under the age of five are thought to have died from extreme hunger since the war began, a charity has found, while more are at risk as fighting continues.
Save the Children, using data compiled by the United Nations, calculated that even by a conservative estimate 84,700 children with Severe Acute Malnutrition may have died between April 2015 and last month.
The UN has warned that up to 14 million people are still at risk of famine, a figure the charity says increased dramatically after the Saudi-led coalition imposed a month-long blockade of Yemen just over a year ago.
Since then, commercial imports of food through Yemen’s main port in Hodeidah have declined by more than 55,000 metric tonnes a month – enough to feed four million.
Save the Children says any further decline in imports would be likely to lead directly to famine.
Human rights groups have also accused the Houthi rebels of diverting and stockpiling food supplies.
One mother living on the outskirts of the port city of Hodeidah, which is seeing some of the fiercest fighting, said the rapid rise in the cost of basic food has meant she is only able to feed her infant son Nusair biscuits or beans.
Giving only her first name, Suad said the 11-month-old is suffering from near-constant diarrhea from the poor diet and most of the time all he can do is lie in bed.
“When I prepare breakfast, I pray that we will be able to have lunch, and when lunch comes I wonder what to have for supper,” she said.
“And when you go to sleep you start thinking about what you are going to feed them tomorrow or where you are going to get it from,” said Suad, who was forced from her home in Hodeidah and now lives in a remote village miles from the nearest hospital.
“Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop,” Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s country director in Yemen, said. “Their immune systems are so weak they are more prone to infections with some too frail to even cry.
“Parents are having to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it.”
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which lead a military coalition against the Houthi rebels, announced on Tuesday $500 million in aid to the country in an attempt to alleviate the famine.
There had been hopes this week that both sides would keep a fragile truce.
The Iranian-aligned Houthi group had announced early on Monday it was halting drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, the UAE and their Yemeni allies, in one of its biggest concessions since it quit the southern port city of Aden in 2015.
But by the evening, the ceasefire was broken when the Saudi coalition struck Houthi targets in Hodeidah, where an estimated 150,000 children remain trapped, and the rebels responded with anti-aircraft fire.
The renewed fighting undermines the latest UN efforts to end the three-year war.
Britain submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council on Monday, which sets a two-week deadline for the warring sides to remove all barriers to humanitarian aid.
When asked about the fighting, a pro-coalition Yemeni military source told Reuters that a ceasefire in Hodeidah would start only after the Security Council passed the resolution.
It is not immediately clear when the text, which was being discussed by the Council’s members on Tuesday, could be put to a vote.
