(3 Dec 2019) LEAD IN: Years of conflict in Yemen have left 24 million Yemenis, or 80 percent of the population in need of humanitarian aid, says an international relief group.
With sustained fighting only adding to humanitarian needs, the relief group is hoping that the warring parties start a cease-fire and engage in peace talks instead.
STORY-LINE:
Another five years of fighting in Yemen would cost as much as $29 billion just to sustain the current level of humanitarian aid, an international relief group said on Monday, a sum that amounts to more than the entire annual humanitarian budget globally.
The war in Yemen has killed over 100,000 people and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, leaving millions suffering from food and medical shortages.
A report by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) says that 24 million Yemenis, or 80 percent of the population, need humanitarian aid and 16 million are living on the verge of famine.
"Our research has taken the UN figures, or the donor figures, it's taken the trends that explain the 24 million people in humanitarian need in Yemen, out of a total population of 26, 28 million, and we've applied them, or the researchers have applied that, over the next five years. And what comes through very, very clearly is that while the aid sector can make a difference in saving lives, while the war carries on, it's as if we are running up a downward escalator," says David Miliband, president of the IRC.
The war also caused Yemen's economy to shrink by 50 percent, the report says.
The group warns that with the current rate of aid, it would take 20 years to return Yemen to pre-conflict levels of child hunger.
An estimated 160,000 Yemeni children under five years old suffered from severe acute malnutrition, the report says.
The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who control much of the country's north.
A Saudi-led coalition allied with the internationally recognized government has been fighting the Houthis since March 2015.
The IRC said the conflict has displaced 3 million people, including over 350,000 in 2019 alone.
It called on the US, Britain and France to pressure the warring parties into an immediate and countrywide cease-fire, and to return to peace talks.
"The reason for publishing this report, which is both a warning and a clarion call is that for the first time in a long time, there is some hope that there is a growing recognition among the parties to the Yemen conflict that they're going to have to talk their way out of this conflict, not fight their way out of this conflict," Miliband says.
The group says a cease-fire brokered by the U.N. last December in the Yemeni port of Hodeida, the main passageway for aid and a lifeline for Houthi-controlled areas, prevented massive humanitarian suffering "but the agreement remains a localized effort."
The deal, which also included a prisoner swap, has yet to be fully implemented.
The IRC also says the recent power-sharing agreement which ended weeks of infighting between the internationally recognized government and the southern separatists "offers hope for more inclusive peace talks."
Saudi Arabia began holding indirect talks with the Houthis in Oman in September, after the Houthis claimed an attack on Saudi oil infrastructure that affected global energy supplies.
The US blamed the attack on Iran, which denied involvement.
Find out more about AP Archive:
Twitter:
Facebook:
Google+:
Tumblr:
Instagram:
You can license this story through AP Archive:
0 Comments