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Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen

The roots of the conflict in the country go back to the failure of a political transition in which in reality had to bring stability following the Arab spring. The above event led to the transfer of power to Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in 2011 from the long-time authoritarian president Ali Abdullah Saleh. President Hadi had to face a lot of problems including attacks by Jihadists, the separatist movement in the south, the continuing loyalty of security personnel to previous president Saleh as well as corruption, unemployment and food insecurity. The Houthi movement took the president’s weakness as their advantage and took control of provinces and in late 2014 and early 2015 the rebel gradually took over the capital Sanaa. President Hadi had to flee abroad due to this in March 2015. Later Saudi Arabia with other eight countries which were mostly Sunni Arab states restored president Hadi’s government although established itself yet struggled to provide basic service and security. Since then there has been only instability and violence in the country leading to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. In April 2020, the Southern Transitional Council (STC) declared self-rule in Aden, breaking a peace deal with an internationally recognised government. 

As per the reports by the UN at least 7,700 civilians have been killed by March 2020. The charity Save the Children estimated that 85,000 children with severe acute malnutrition might have died between April 2015 and October 2018. An estimated 2 million children are acutely malnourished, including almost 360,000 children under five years old who are struggling to survive. Consequently, medics have struggled to deal with the largest cholera outbreak ever recorded, which has resulted in more than 2.2 million suspected cases and 3,895 related deaths since October 2016. The United Nations has warned that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic could “exceed the combined toll of war, disease, and hunger over the last five years.” The war has also displaced more than 3.65 million from their homes.

According to the recent United Nations reports, the economy of Yemen is collapsing and the conflict has been one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. As there are more than 20 million Yemenis who are in immediate need of financial assistance, the agencies but are running out of the money to take the necessary steps. Such agencies are already helping about 13 million people across the country, this might push back the immediate risk of famine yet the need of the hour is the immediate help to help the people of this country.