Yemen food crisis is man-made, partly as a war tactic: UN

United Nations, August 2

The UN development chief in Yemen says the crisis that has left millions hungry and on the brink of famine is “a man-made disaster” driven not only by decades of poverty and lack of investment but also by economic strangulation used as a tactic of war.

Auke Lootsma told UN reporters on Tuesday by video conference from the capital of Sanaa that “there is no end in sight” to the civil war, which began in September 2014.

He said about 70 per cent of the country’s 27 million people need humanitarian aid and nearly 7 million are close to famine.

He said the UN has recorded almost 400,000 cases of cholera and nearly 1,900 related deaths the past four months.

There also has been a meningitis outbreak in the last two weeks. — AP