Yemen in the "clear and present danger" of a massive famine after years of violence: NPR

The UN chief of humanitarian aid warned a month ago that war-torn Yemen was about to "lose a lot of human lives" – a famine-driven disaster that could lead to complete collapse of a country already failing.

Since then, he says the desperate situation has only worsened.

"The record is unbearably high," Mark Lowcock told the United States Security Council on Tuesday. "The immune systems of millions of people benefiting from survival assistance for years are literally collapsing, making them, especially children and the elderly, more likely to succumb to malnutrition, to cholera. and other diseases. "

Last month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that eight million people were desperately dependent on aid and another 3.5 million were likely to join them. But Lowcock said Tuesday that even if these figures were striking, they did not do justice to the crisis now ravaging Yemen.

On the basis of new surveys and analyzes, his office said that no less than 14 million people, or about half of the country's total population, could soon "depend entirely on external assistance for their survival". And with the violence that continues to rage in the key port city of Hodeidah, where Saudi-backed Yemeni forces launched an offensive against Houthi rebels earlier this year, the international aid operation may be disrupted. .

"In the absence of a cessation of hostilities, especially around Hudaydah, where fighting that has been going on for more than four months has damaged the major facilities and infrastructure on which the rescue operation s & # 39; "Supports, relief efforts will eventually be completely overwhelmed," said Lowcock. "The moment has certainly come for all parties to heed these warnings."

None of the parties to the complex war in Yemen have yet taken these warnings into account.

The Houthis, a rebel Shia militia, seized the capital and the northwestern regions of the country in 2014, a world-renowned government. The following year, a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia launched an air strike campaign against the Houthis, who are for their part supported by the regional rival of the Saudis, the 39-year-old. ;Iran.

In the years that followed, a complex network of fighters – with even more incoherent interests – continued the war in Yemen with little hope of resolution.

In fact, one of the few firm answers to emerge from the violence is its effect on the country's civilians: more than 17,000 killed or wounded in the fighting. More than one million suspected cases of cholera last year alone. At least three million people internally displaced by violence.

At the end of last year, the charity Save the Children estimated that about 130 children were starving or dying every day in Yemen.

The conflict provoked an uproar not only from humanitarian groups, but also from international organizations – which have accused all parties of possible war crimes – and from American politicians. The United States has supported Saudi Arabia's military campaign in the country – support that has been the subject of further review in recent weeks, compounded by the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul.

Lowcock, the chief of United States humanitarian assistance, has not criticized any particular country. Instead, he addressed his urgent requests to "all stakeholders to make every effort to avoid a disaster". This includes not only the end of the violence, but also increased funding for humanitarian efforts and better protection of the food supply.

Failure to follow these steps, said Lowcock, would be "the death knell of countless innocent civilians, mostly women and children".

"There is now a clear and present danger of a great and imminent great famine that will ravage Yemen," he added, "far greater than anything that professionals in this sector have seen in the past. of their professional life ".