MSF: Millions of Yemenis in Desperate Health Situation
Local Editor
The international medical charity Doctors without Borders warned that millions of Yemenis face a "desperate" health situation on top of the ravages of war as Saudi Arabia continues its military aggression against its impoverished neighbor.
Doctors without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF [Medecins Sans Frontieres], warned that thirty months of war have had a devastating effect on the lives of civilians, including a large number of children.
"Thirty months of war, high prices for consumer goods and unemployment have had a massive impact on people," MSF said, adding that a "great number of children" suffered from malnutrition.
Meanwhile, Ghassan Abou Chaar, head of the MSF mission in Yemen, said in a statement that "millions of Yemenis who cannot access primary health care [are in a] desperate situation."
According to MSF, health workers have not been paid for the past 13 months across the conflict-ravaged country.
Mark Lowcock, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA], who visited the Middle East's poorest country last week said "it has been shocking to see the terrible impact of this man-made conflict."
The United Nations has already described the ongoing conflict in Yemen as the "largest humanitarian crisis in the world." The war has left seven million people at risk of famine and an estimated 17 million, or about 60 percent of the overall population of the country, food insecure.
On Sunday, the World Food Program [WFP] said that food was being used as a "weapon of war" in Yemen at a time when millions of people faced an impending famine in the country.
Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015.
Recently, the United Nations added Riyadh and its allies to a blacklist for the "killing and maiming of children."
Riyadh's deadly campaign has seriously damaged Yemen's infrastructure. Local Yemeni sources have put the death toll from Saudi airstrikes at over 14,000 people.
Another 2,100 people have died of cholera since April as hospitals struggle to secure basic supplies across the country.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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