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Yemen’s infants face starvation as war rages on
SANAA, Oct 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Ahmed Hassan is only a few months old, but
his emaciated frame twitches as he cries in pain when Yemeni doctors gently
place him on a scale. He is starving.
In the next room, nurses make baby formula by the pitcher, filling syringes
to ration a portion for each malnourished child who comes to Sabaeen Hospital
in the rebel-held capital for emergency treatment.
Too weak to swallow, some babies are fed through feeding tubes that go
through the nose directly into the stomach.
After being fed, some of them appear to feel a bit better, crawling over to
play with other emaciated children in the clinic, tubes still taped to their
faces.
“Life’s become really very difficult… but we do our best, given the
circumstances,” said Umm Tarek, as her nine-month-old baby underwent treated
for malnutrition.
“We’re not from here, so we rent an old, old house for 10,000 riyals ($40)
in Hiziaz,” south of Sanaa, she told AFP.
“Then my baby got sick because we used to give him formula, but now we
can’t afford both the house and powdered milk anymore.”
Four years of war between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and Huthi rebels
have pushed the country to the brink of mass starvation.
The United Nations last week warned 14 million Yemenis are at serious risk
of famine, as the war shows no sign of waning.
Mark Lowcock, the UN’s humanitarian chief, said Monday the danger of famine
in Yemen is “much bigger than anything any professional in this field has
seen during their working lives”.
– ‘At death’s door’ –
At Sabaeen hospital, paediatrician Sharaf Nashwan said some families can’t
afford transport costs to reach the facility.
“So their children are left for days or weeks suffering malnutrition, until
someone helps them out with a little money to get their kids to hospital. But
by then we’re looking at a really severe case,” he said.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen and more than 56,000 injured
since 2015, according to the World Health Organization.
The UN this month called for a humanitarian ceasefire around facilities
involved in food aid distribution, but neither the Iran-backed rebels nor
Saudi Arabia and its allies have heeded the call.
The two sides are fighting for control of the country, which shares a land
border with Saudi Arabia and is home to a string of valuable ports.
The rebels now control the capital Sanaa along with much of Yemen’s
northern highlands and western Hodeida, Yemen’s largest port through which
nearly three-quarters of imports flow.
A blockade has been imposed on the port and Sanaa airport by the Saudi-led
coalition, which controls Yemen’s airspace.
Yemenis struggling to survive such conditions are also confronted with a
collapsed economy, leaving government clerks and teachers without pay for
months.
The International Monetary Fund expects Yemen’s economy will contract by
2.6 percent in 2018, while inflation is forecast to hit 42 percent.
In the face of such dire circumstances, paediatrician Nashwan said medical
staff do their utmost to save the children in their care.
“The cases that we get here at the hospital tend to be severe. At death’s
door, sometimes. We do our jobs, do everything we can to push them back to
good health,” he said.
“Some get well. Others die.”
BSS/AFP/MRI/1556 HRS