20 million people in Yemen are hungry: UN official

12, Dec 2018

The United Nations’ Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock recently stated that “20 million Yemenis are hungry,” CBS News reported. Speaking after having traveled to the country, Lowcock said that there has been a “dramatic deterioration” of the situation in Yemen, and that compared to 2017, 15% more of Yemen’s residents “face hunger,” CBS News stated. According to an inter-agency report, released by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme and other humanitarian partners, “For the first time, food security assessments have confirmed the worst levels of hunger in Yemen”. Per a WFP report, Lisa Grande, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, said, “What the IPC tells us is alarming,” adding, “65,000 people are barely surviving right now and at least a quarter of a million people are facing a bleak year. Any change in their circumstances, including any disruption in their ability to access food on a regular basis will bring them to the brink of death.”