Impacts of the Ukraine war on Yemen

In the Middle East and North Africa, people are struggling to get the most basic commodities as food and fuel prices rise as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

Yemen, which is on the brink of famine as a result of seven years of civil war, is also facing a serious threat of food shortages due to the war in Ukraine, one of the world's largest suppliers of grain.

In al-Jawf province, which borders Saudi Arabia, farmers are working hard to harvest earlier because they fear their crops will fall to Houthi rebels in Sanaa.

Most of Yemen's 30 million people will not taste the native product, as the country is almost entirely dependent on food imports and, according to the United Nations, supplies about a third of Ukraine's wheat.

The new assessments obtained from the data mining center and the classification of famine levels are very worrying. By the second half of this year, the number of people experiencing IPC5, the highest hunger rate, is projected to increase fivefold from 30,000 to 160,000.

Apart from the statistics related to the fifth level of famine UN estimates in March showed that more than 17 million people also are facing high levels of food insecurity, and that number is likely to rise. 

These findings also indicate a high level of persistent acute malnutrition among children under five years of age. Across Yemen, 2.2 million children are severely malnourished and nearly half a million children are severely malnourished and their lives are directly at risk of death. In addition, about 1.3 million pregnant women are diagnosed with acute malnutrition.

 

_{Source and Credit: France24, RW}