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Yemen’s humanitarian situation continues to tumble
The latest report on Yemen’s deteriorating humanitarian situation comes despite political movements to end Yemen’s ten-month crisis.
Tawfiq Shuaibi, head of the Yemeni Center for Fair Transition, said that the situation is continuing to deteriorate because of the ongoing political crisis, the decline in Yemen’s resources and the global financial crisis.
He added that the decline was also caused by a lack of jobs, increasing unemployment among young people, a severe shortage of basic materials, ill-health and the environmental situation.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by fighting in the Yemeni province of Abyan, where Al-Qaeda is battling Yemen’s armed forces. Many of the displaced persons either live with host families or in school buildings in Aden and neighboring provinces such as Lahj.
In the north, where the estimated number of people displaced by the conflict between Shiite-Houthi fighters and Yemen’s Armed Forces in Saada reached a thousand people – and despite the efforts of humanitarian organizations – the situation has deteriorated since Prague visited the region a year ago.
The areas most affected by the conflict are Saada and Abyan governorates.
Shuaibi said the poverty rate is increasing on a daily basis and there is no middle class.
Between 50 and 60 percent of Yemenis live below the poverty line, a wage of $1-2 (YR 214 – YR 428) a day according to neutral organizations.
Yemen is now the 11th most food insecure country, according to the World Food Program, with half of children “chronically malnourished”.
According to the organization, Yemen is in a “hunger trap” facing “absolute poverty”.
“Yemen is characterized by widespread poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition, unemployment, low levels of education, high gender disparities, rapid population growth and insufficient access to safe water and to land,” according to the Program. “Multiple and simultaneous shocks have exacerbated the vulnerability of families and left millions trapped in absolute hunger and poverty.”
