(SANAA, Yemen) — An international aid group says an estimated 85,000 children under age 5 may have died of hunger and disease since the outbreak of Yemen’s civil war in 2015.

Save the Children said Wednesday the “conservative” estimate is based on average mortality rates for Severe Acute Malnutrition, which the U.N. says has afflicted more than 1.3 million children since a Saudi-led coalition went to war with Yemen’s Houthi rebels in March 2015.

Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s Yemen director, says: “For every child killed by bombs and bullets, dozens are starving to death and it’s entirely preventable,” adding that “children who die in this way suffer immensely.”

The war and a Saudi-led blockade have created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 8 million people at risk of starvation. </s> A charity says as many as 85,000 children under the age of five may have died from malnutrition or disease as a result of the war in Yemen.

Save the Children estimates that 84,701 children with Severe Acute Malnutrition may have died between April 2015 and October 2018.

The aid agency notes that it used a 'conservative estimate' to come up with its figures.

Blockades and fighting have limited access to key ports and supply points in Yemen - limiting aid agencies' ability to reach civilians impacted by the ongoing war.

Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s Country Director in Yemen, said: “We are horrified that some 85,000 children in Yemen may have died because of extreme hunger since the war began. For every child killed by bombs and bullets, dozens are starving to death and it’s entirely preventable.

“Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop... Parents are having to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it."

The charity is calling for an "immediate end to the fighting so no more lives are lost".

Fighting between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the ousted Yemeni government – supported by a Saudi-led coalition – has been ongoing for the last several years, intensifying a crisis that began with a revolution in 2011.

The conflict has resulted in what's been described by the UN as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

UN officials last month said around 14 million people in Yemen - amounting to half its total population - are facing “pre-famine conditions". </s> British charity Save the Children says that an estimated 85,000 children under the age of 5 may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war in Yemen escalated more than three years ago.

Through new analysis of UN data, the charity found that between April 2015 and October 2018, about 84,701 children under 5 died from untreated cases of severe acute malnutrition — or in simple terms, hunger.

These grim figures, detailing the horrors of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, come as intense fighting has again erupted in Yemen’s strategic port city of Hodeidah — a vital entry point for UN and other humanitarian aid and the center of the conflict between the US-backed Saudi-led coalition and the Iranian-aligned Houthis.

The renewed violence follows progress toward ending Yemen’s war of nearly four years, a conflict that has killed at least 10,000 people and has pushed the nation to the brink of the world’s worst famine in 100 years, leaving 14 million people at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations.

Since a Saudi coalition blockade of the port of Hodeidah, followed by ongoing violence and other disruptions, commercial imports of food have dropped by more than 55,000 metric tons a month, according to Save the Children. That food could meet the needs of 4.4 million people, half of whom are children. Any further decline in imports, the charity warns, could lead to famine.

Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s country director in Yemen, said that the charity is horrified by the number of children who may have died because of hunger.

“Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop. Their immune systems are so weak they are more prone to infections, with some too frail to even cry,” Kirolas said. “Parents are having to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it.”

Save the Children says that an increase in fighting, blockades and bureaucracy in Hodeidah have forced it to bring supplies through the southern port of Aden, tripling the amount of time for that aid to reach the people who need it the most.

An estimated 400,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2018, according to the United Nations — 15,000 more than last year. </s> A report based on data from the UN suggests that over 85,000 children under the age of five have died as a result of severe malnutrition, with many more currently at risk.

While much of the media remains focused on US-Saudi relations in the wake of the Khashoggi killing, a new report by Save the Children highlights the devastating impact that these countries’ joint war effort has had on millions of society’s most vulnerable members. Using UN data, the charity now estimates that 85,000 children under the age of five may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war in Yemen began three years ago.

Save the Children says it hopes that the horrific figures will help to push for talks to end the devastating conflict. The new statistics cover the period since April 2015, when Saudi Arabia began airstrikes fearing the rising power of Yemen’s Iranian-aligned Houthis.

The report suggests that the Saudi alliance’s air and land blockade is the primary reason for the grim developments, particularly given its continued heavy bombardment near the port of Hodeidah, through which Yemen imports 90 percent of its food supply, as well as critical foreign aid. Save the Children’s country director in Yemen, Tamer Kirolos, warns that around 150,000 children are currently at risk in the port city due to a dramatic increase in artillery shelling.

“Parents are having to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it,” Kirolos said.

The UN reports that at least 6,800 civilians have already been killed and 10,700 injured in the conflict, alongside a massive cholera outbreak affecting over a million people. Last month, they warned that 14 million people, around half of the population, are facing pre-famine conditions. </s> An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five may have starved to death in Yemen in the last three-and-a-half years as a result of the civil war there, according to Save the Children.

It coincides with a UN report that says up to 14 million people are in danger of famine in the region, the number at risk rising sharply following an aid blockade imposed on Yemen by the Saudi and Emirati-led coalition just over a year ago.

Hopes of a ceasefire in the brutal conflict appear to have been dashed after fighting resumed in the port city of Hodeidah between the Saudi-UAE coalition and Houthi rebels.

The military alliance - led by Riyadh - conducted more than 10 airstrikes on rebel-held positions on Tuesday, despite having ordered a halt in its offensive last week amid pressure from the West.

Using data compiled by the UN, Save the Children evaluated mortality rates for untreated cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in children under five years in Yemen.

The charity calculated that even by a conservative estimate approximately 84,700 children with SAM may have died between April 2015 and October 2018.

"We are horrified that some 85,000 children in Yemen may have died because of extreme hunger since the war began. For every child killed by bombs and bullets, dozens are starving to death and it's entirely preventable.

"Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop. Their immune systems are so weak they are more prone to infections with some too frail to even cry. Parents are having to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it.

"Save the Children has provided food for 140,000 children and treated more than 78,000 children for malnutrition since the start of the crisis. Despite the challenges, we're saving lives every day."

Britain has drafted a UN Security Council resolution calling for a halt to fighting in Hodeidah, a stop to attacks on populated areas across Yemen and on other countries in the region, and more aid funding.

Saudi Arabia and the coalition it leads first intervened in Yemen in 2015, with the aim of restoring its internationally-recognised government that had been ousted from the capital of Sanaa the year before.

Following the latest renewal of hostilities, a Saudi humanitarian official said the coalition was willing to contribute $500m (£3.9m) to a new aid programme for Yemen. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Yemen's war is leaving children on the brink of famine. Warning: This video contains some distressing scenes

The world is facing its largest humanitarian crisis since 1945, the United Nations says, issuing a plea for help to avoid "a catastrophe".

UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien said that more than 20 million people faced the threat of starvation and famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria.

Unicef has already warned 1.4m children could starve to death this year.

Mr O'Brien said $4.4bn (£3.6bn) was needed by July to avert disaster.

"We stand at a critical point in history," Mr O'Brien told the Security Council on Friday. "Already at the beginning of the year we are facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the creation of the United Nations."

"Now, more than 20 million people across four countries face starvation and famine. Without collective and coordinated global efforts, people will simply starve to death. Many more will suffer and die from disease.

"Children stunted and out of school. Livelihoods, futures and hope will be lost. Communities' resilience rapidly wilting away. Development gains reversed. Many will be displaced and will continue to move in search for survival, creating ever more instability across entire regions."

Mr O'Brien's comments follow on from a similar appeal made by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last month.

At that time, he revealed the UN had only received $90m (£74m) so far in 2017, despite generous pledges.

Like Mr O'Brien, he urged more financial support for the four countries. But why are they in such dire need?

Yemen

Image copyright Unicef Image caption Five-year-old Mohannad Ali sits in hospital in Yemen in December. His younger cousin - aged just two - died of hunger

The pictures were among the most shocking of last year: emaciated children, clinging on to life with what little strength they had left. Four-year-olds not bigger than infants. And mothers unable to do anything to stop their children dying.

It is thought a child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen from a preventable disease, while half-a-million children under five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

The UN estimates some 19 million people - or two thirds of Yemen's population - is in need of some sort of humanitarian help following two years of war between Houthi insurgents and the government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition.

What's hampering aid?

Continuing fighting, lack of rule of law, poor governance, under-development.

A naval embargo imposed by the Saudi-led coalition, fighting around the government-controlled port of Aden and air strikes on the rebel-held port of Hudaydah, have severely reduced imports since 2015.

A lack of fuel, coupled with insecurity and damage to markets and roads, have also prevented supplies from being distributed.

Read more: How bad is Yemen's humanitarian crisis?

South Sudan

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ravaged by war, now famine has hit South Sudan

UN agencies say 100,000 people are facing starvation in South Sudan, while a further million are classified as being on the brink of famine.

It is the most acute of the present food emergencies, and the most widespread nationally.

Overall, says the UN, 4.9 million people - or 40% of South Sudan's population - are "in need of urgent food, agriculture and nutrition assistance".

What's hampering aid?

Continuing fighting in the country that now has been at war since 2013, lack of rule of law, under-development.

Some UN officials have suggested President Salva Kiir's government has been blocking food aid to certain areas - a claim denied by the authorities.

There have also been reports of humanitarian convoys and warehouses coming under attack or being looted, either by government or rebel forces.

Read more: Why are there still famines?

Nigeria

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Starvation could kill more people than Boko Haram

The UN has described the unfolding disaster in north-eastern Nigeria as the "greatest crisis on the continent" - the full extent of which has only been revealed as extremist militant group Boko Haram is pushed back.

It was already known the Islamist group had killed 15,000 and pushed more than two million from their homes. But as they retreated, it became clear there were thousands more people living in famine-like conditions in urgent need of help.

The UN estimated in December there were 75,000 children at risk of starving to death. Another 7.1 million people in Nigeria and the neighbouring Lake Chad area are considered "severely food insecure".

What's hampering aid?

Boko Haram attacks, lack of rule of law, under-development.

There are still areas under the control of Boko Haram, which aid agencies cannot reach.

Thee have also been allegations of widespread aid theft, which are being investigated by Nigeria's senate.

Read more: 'We survived militants but face starvation'

Somalia

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Hospitals are seeing children with severe dehydration

The last time a famine was declared in Somalia - just six years ago - nearly 260,000 people died.

At the beginning of March, there were reports of 110 people dying in just one region in a 48-hour period.

Humanitarian groups fear this could be just the beginning: a lack of water - blamed partially on the El Nino weather phenomenon - has killed off livestock and crops, leaving 6.2 million people in urgent need of help.

What's hampering aid?

Continuing attacks by Islamist militant group al-Shabab, lack of rule of law, under-development.

Piracy off Somalia's coast impeded shipments in the past - however attacks have reduced significantly in recent years.

Read more: More than 100 die from hunger in one region </s> As many as 85,000 children in Yemen starved to death in the past three years during its brutal war, an aid group reported on Wednesday.

Using data compiled by the United Nations, Save the Children evaluated mortality rates for untreated cases of severe acute malnutrition in children under five-years old.

The humanitarian agency found some 84,701 children may have starved to death between April 2015 and October 2018 because of a lack of food.

“We are horrified that some 85,000 children in Yemen may have died because of extreme hunger since the war began,” said Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s director in Yemen, in a statement.

“Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop… Parents are having to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it.”

Since the Saudi-Emirati military intervention in March 2015 in Yemen, commercial imports of food through the vital Hodeidah port have been reduced by more than 55,000 tonnes a month, enough to meet the needs of 4.4 million people, including 2.2 million children, the group said.

The World Food Programme says up to 14 million Yemenis are now at risk of starvation as fighting rages in Hodeidah.

“Any further decline in imports could likely lead directly to famine,” it warned.

The report comes as fighting continues for control of Hodeidah between Houthi rebels and Saudi-Emirati backed forces loyal to Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The World Health Organization says nearly 10,000 people – mostly civilians – have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-Emirati intervention in March 2015, but rights groups believe the death toll may be five times higher.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have announced they would each give $250m in aid to the war-ravaged country to support more than 10 million people.

In Hodeidah, fighting was also under way Tuesday in the main Khamsin Street in the city centre and in al-Saleh district, officials and witnesses said.

Rebel-run Al Masirah TV said the rebels attacked government forces on a main road linking the capital, Sanaa, and Hodeidah. Government forces captured the road in September.

UN envoy Martin Griffiths is expected to meet with Houthi officials in Sanaa on Wednesday.

Both sides have in the past week expressed support for the envoy and his mission to hold talks in Sweden, but that was thrown in jeopardy after fierce clashes flared in Hodeidah late Tuesday.

Just hours before Griffiths’ planned visit, residents in the east of Hodeidah told AFP news agency by telephone they could hear fighting, and reported shrapnel falling in residential neighbourhoods.

Multiple past attempts to hold negotiations between the government alliance and Houthis have failed.

Griffiths said Monday he hoped the rivals would meet in Sweden “within the next few weeks”. No date has been set. </s> The UN children’s agency UNICEF said on Tuesday nearly 1.4 million children were at “imminent risk” of death in famines in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Famine was formally declared on Monday in parts of South Sudan, which has been mired in civil war since 2013. People are already starving to death in all four countries, and the World Food Programme says more than 20 million lives are at risk in the next six months. The United Nations defines famine as when at least 20 percent of households in an area face extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 percent, and two or more people per 10,000 are dying per day.

Here are details about some of the major famines around the world in the last 100 years:

In 2011, Somalia suffered a famine that killed 260,000 people in south and central regions. The famine was declared in July, but most people had already died by May. Years of drought, that have also affected Kenya and Ethiopia, have hit harvests and conflict has made it extremely difficult for agencies to operate and access communities in the south of the country. U.N. declared Somali famine over in February 2012 following an exceptional harvest after good rains and food deliveries by aid agencies.

From 1995-1999 between 2.8 million and 3.5 million people died because of a combination of flooding and government policy in the reclusive state.

The Marxist policies of Mengistu Haile Mariam, which he began abandoning in 1990 with some economic reforms, left a country ravaged by economic decline, famine and regional conflicts that consumed half the state budget. In 1984-85, in the famine, up to one million Ethiopians starved to death. For months in 1984, Mengistu denied the devastating famine in Ethiopia’s north. Aid workers later recalled he flew in planes loaded with whisky to celebrate the anniversary of his revolution, as hunger deepened. Bob Geldof, after watching pictures of the famine, organised Live Aid in 1985 to try to alleviate the hunger. Watched by 1.5 billion people, it raised $100 million for Africa’s starving.

Up to 2 million died of famine following a decade of conflict, first during the 1970-1975 civil war, then during the brutal Khmer Rouge era until 1978 and finally in the aftermath of the Vietnamese invasion that ended Khmer Rouge rule in 1979.

Between 10 and 30 million people died as a result of Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s. His plan involved modernizing agriculture and increasing grain production however officials often exaggerated the size of harvests, and in many places the entire grain harvest was seized. China’s leaders appeared to have been unaware of the severity of the famine as from 1958 until 1961, China doubled its grain exports and cut imports of food.

Up to 8 million people died as a result of Josef Stalin’s massive industrialisation programme in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s, during which the government seized grain for export. It needed the hard currency to buy industrial equipment. When people in the Ukraine reported a famine, Stalin punished them by refusing to send them food aid. </s> SANAA, Yemen – An estimated 85,000 children under age 5 may have died of hunger and disease since the outbreak of Yemen’s civil war in 2015, an international aid group said Wednesday.

Save the Children based its figures on mortality rates for untreated cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition in young children. The U.N. says more than 1.3 million children have suffered from SAM since a Saudi-led coalition went to war with Yemen’s Houthi rebels in March 2015.

The group said its “conservative estimate” was that 84,701 children may have died, based on historical studies that find that 20 to 30 percent of untreated cases lead to death. It says it calculated the figure based on the number of cases reported in areas where aid groups were unable to intervene.

“For every child killed by bombs and bullets, dozens are starving to death and it’s entirely preventable,” said Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s Yemen director. “Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop.”

More: Trump administration to curtail military support for Saudi-led war in Yemen

More: ‘Stop starving people as instrument of war.' One Republican’s blunt message to Saudis — and Trump

The war has given rise to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Three-quarters of Yemen’s people require life-saving assistance and more than 8 million are at risk of starvation. Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the fighting.

Save the Children blamed the widespread starvation on a Saudi-led blockade that was tightened a year ago after the Iran-aligned rebels fired a ballistic missile at the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The charity also cited recent fighting in and around the port city of Hodeida, a lifeline through which Yemen imports some 70 percent of its food and humanitarian aid.

It said commercial imports through the rebel-held port have fallen by more than 55,000 metric tons a month – enough to meet the needs of 4.4 million people. Save the Children said it had been forced to bring supplies for the northern Yemen through the southern port of Aden, slowing aid deliveries.
A report by charity Save the Children estimates that 85,000 children died of starvation as a result of the war.