Yemen faces child malnutrition crisis after year of unrest

"A year of Yemen's turmoil has exacerbated the number of malnourished children under the age of five to around 750,000, UNICEF said Tuesday, appealing to the government and the international community to help develop the country's infrastructure to tackle the problem," the Associated Press reports (Al-Haj/Batrawy, 1/24). "Conflict, poverty and drought, compounded by the unrest of the previous year, the high food and fuel prices, and the breakdown of social services, are putting children's health at great risks and threatening their very survival," UNICEF Regional Director Maria Calivis said today, concluding "a two-day visit to Yemen where she saw first-hand the impact of malnutrition on children's health," a UNICEF news note states (1/24).

"In some parts of this country of 20 million people, the number of children suffering from malnutrition has doubled from what it was in 2000, said" Calivis, the AP notes. "Malnutrition, along with poor health services, is also to blame for most of the recent deaths of 74 children from measles among 2,500 children affected by a recent outbreak of the disease, according to government figures," the news service adds (1/24).

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