THESE harrowing photos show a malnourished child in Yemen – just one of the estimated 17 million to suffer from starvation amidst the country’s raging civil war.
The weak child – whose bones are seen protruding as he lies on a hospital bed – was pictured yesterday being treated by doctors at a clinic in Abs, in the country’s north.
The civil war raging in Yemen – where poverty and lack of access to food and health services was already widespread – has taken a particularly devastating toll on children.
To date, more than 6,000 have been killed, 400,000 left malnourished and two million are out of school after three years of conflict.
Yemen’s conflict began in March 2015 when an international coalition led by Saudi Arabia back its incumbent government launched airstrikes on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
It has been labelled the “Forgotten War” because most of the world’s attention has been on the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
Leading UN officials say the civilian death toll in the conflict has exceeded 10,000 – with another 40,000 wounded.
Jamie McGoldrick, from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the figure was calculated on lists of victims gathered by various health facilities operating in Yemen.
As well as the sizeable death toll, the UNHCR believes over three million people have been displaced as a result of the conflict.
He also stressed the figures could be far higher.
HOW DID THE WAR START?
The fighting can be traced back to the handover of power from long-time autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh to his deputy and current president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in November 2011.
The handover was forced in a bid to return stability to the country following the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings against long-time rulers across the Middle East.
Hadi has struggled to deal with various problems afflicting the nation including al-Qaeda attacks, a separatist rising in the south, divided loyalties in the military, corruption, lack of food and unemployment.
WHO IS FIGHTING WHO?
Hadi’s struggles prompted the rising of the Houthi movement, championing Yemen’s minority Shia community.
They had launched a series of rebellions against the former president over the last ten years but took advantage of Hadi’s weakness by claiming control of the northern Saada province.
Frustrated by the lack of reform following the removal of Saleh, many ordinary Yemenis joined the Houthis.
The rebels eventually managed to take control of the capital Sanaa in January 2015 and effectively put President Hadi under house arrest until he managed to escape to Aden in the south of the country.
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The Houthis and forces loyal to the previous regime then tried to take the whole country. In March, Hadi fled Yemen in a boat and arrived in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. At the same time, Saudi Arabia began a brutal bombing campaign in support of Hadi’s ousted government.
In September 2015, he returned to the southern city of Aden as Saudi-backed forces, supported by other Sunni-majority nations, recaptured the city.
In contrast, the Houthi’s are backed by Iran, which is predominately Shia, with many describing the conflict as a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia – the leading powers of the two differing interpretations of Islam.
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