Welcome to UNICEF USA!
Stay informed on UNICEF's work saving and protecting children around the world
Yemen's Children Are on the Edge of Starvation
Intense civil war has pushed underdeveloped, overlooked Yemen to the brink of collapse. UNICEF has been on the ground since the crisis began, working closely with partners to provide nutrition, safe water, health care and immunizations, sanitation, education, physical protection and psychological support to children. Please donate now to support UNICEF's lifesaving efforts.
As Yemen's warring sides sit down for another day of peace talks at a castle outside Stockholm, 15.9 million Yemenis — 53 percent of the total population — wake up hungry every day, according to a new report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, the World Food Program (WFP) and humanitarian partners.
Food prices have jumped by 150 percent since the conflict began, leaving as many as 20 million Yemenis food insecure. 1.8 million children are acutely malnourished, including 400,000 who suffer from the most acute form. So far this year, UNICEF has treated nearly 230,000 Yemeni children for severe acute malnutrition, which can be fatal.
Even before the war began, Yemen imported more than 75 percent of its food, and 80 percent of Yemenis lived below the poverty line. Today, an estimated 11.3 million children in Yemen need humanitarian assistance. An urgent scale up is needed to save lives.
"In a war waged by adults, it is the country's children who suffer first and suffer most," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore. "Thousands of Yemeni children could die from severe malnutrition if conditions, including conflict and economic crisis, do not improve soon. Warring parties must choose whether to end the fighting, save lives, or fight on, and cause more children to die."
UNICEF has been on the ground since the crisis in Yemen began, working closely with partners to provide nutrition, safe water, health care and immunizations, sanitation, education, physical protection and psychological support to children in Yemen.
UNICEF and partners are working tirelessly in Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Bangladesh and around the world to save and protect children. With a presence in 190 countries and territories, UNICEF has helped save more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world.
Top photo: This boy was one of many treated for a suspected case of cholera at a UNICEF-supported hospital in Hudaydah, Yemen in early October 2018. © UNICEF/UN0240907/Saeed