Yemen’s Catastrophe: Trying to Make A Child Smile ‘Like Tickling A Ghost’

Local Editor

United Nations food Chief David Beasley spotted a tiny foot sticking out from under a blanket in a hospital in Yemen that has been overwhelmed with malnourished children, so he tried to bring a smile to the face of the small patient. “It was just like tickling a ghost,” Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, told reporters in New York Friday after returning from a three-day visit to the war-torn, impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.

Beasley recounted a conversation he had with a doctor at the hospital in the country’s capital, Sanaa: “He said, ‘Every day about 50 children are brought to us. We have to send 30 home to die. We can only accommodate 20.’”

Beasley briefed the UN Security Council Friday with UN aid chief Mark Lowcock and UN Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths.

The country’s economy is in crisis and three-quarters of Yemen’s population, or 22 million people, require aid. Some 8.4 million are on the brink of starvation, though Lowcock has warned that will likely rise to 14 million.

“This is not on the brink of a catastrophe. This is a catastrophe,” Beasley said.

“You cannot solve the humanitarian crisis in Yemen today with [a] humanitarian response alone. It’s now going to require an economic infusion of substantial liquidity. Both are going to be required to avert a famine,” he said.

Beasley also visited Yemen’s main port city Hodeida, which handles 80 percent of the country’s food imports and aid supplies.

“That port has got to be protected at all costs,” Beasley said.

“We are prepared, if necessary, if all parties desire, for the UN to take over the operational capacity of the port. We are prepared to do that, we do not want to do that, but if that’s what it takes, we will do it,” he said.

Beasley also spoke about seeing an 8-month-old baby boy at the hospital in Sanaa who weighed a third of what he should.

His mother had driven hundreds of kilometers through military checkpoints to get him medical help.
“The little boy died yesterday,” he said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team