{"id":369755,"date":"2017-11-09T11:41:13","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T11:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=369755"},"modified":"2017-11-09T11:41:13","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T11:41:13","slug":"yemen-conflict-un-official-warns-of-worlds-biggest-famine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/yemen-conflict-un-official-warns-of-worlds-biggest-famine\/","title":{"rendered":"Yemen conflict: UN official warns of world’s biggest famine"},"content":{"rendered":"
Yemen faces the world’s largest famine in decades “with millions of victims” if aid deliveries are not resumed, a senior UN official has warned.<\/p>\n
Mark Lowcock, the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, urged the Saudi-led coalition to lift its blockade of the conflict-torn country.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the coalition shut air, land and sea routes into Yemen after Houthi rebels fired a missile at Riyadh.<\/p>\n
The ballistic warhead was intercepted near the Saudi capital.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia said the blockade was needed to stop Iran sending weapons to the rebels.<\/p>\n
Iran denies arming the rebels, who have fought the Saudi-led coalition since 2015.<\/p>\n
Mr Lowcock was speaking on Wednesday, after briefing the UN Security Council on the issue behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
“I have told the council that unless those measures are lifted… there will be a famine in Yemen”, Mr Lowcock told reporters.<\/p>\n
“It will be the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims.”<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the UN and the Red Cross warned that a “catastrophic” situation threatened millions of Yemenis who relied on life-saving aid deliveries.<\/p>\n
The Red Cross said its shipment of chlorine tablets, vital to combating a cholera epidemic which has affected more than 900,000 people, had been blocked.<\/p>\n
The UN says seven million Yemenis are on the brink of famine.<\/p>\n
The country relies on imports for virtually everything civilians need to survive, but now neither food, fuel nor medicine can get in.<\/p>\n
More than 8,670 people – 60% of them civilians – have been killed and 49,960 injured in air strikes and fighting on the ground since the coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March 2015, according to the UN.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yemen faces the world’s largest famine in decades “with millions of victims” if aid deliveries are not resumed, a senior UN official has warned. Mark Lowcock, the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, urged the Saudi-led coalition to lift its blockade of the conflict-torn country. On Monday, the coalition shut air, land and sea routes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[1686,2297],"yoast_head":"\n