United Nations officials have warned about the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen in the wake of the nearly two-year-old Saudi war in the impoverished Arab country, stating that Yemen could face famine this year.
“The conflict in Yemen is now the primary driver of the largest food security emergency in the world," UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O'Brien told the Security Council on Thursday.
"If there is no immediate action, famine is now a possible scenario for 2017,” he pointed out.
O'Brien also expressed sorrow over the plight of Yemeni children, saying a child under the age of 10 is dying every 10 minutes of "preventable causes."
The top UN official further warned that grain silos will run out of storage within the next few months because foreign banks no longer conduct financial transactions with many of the country's commercial banks.
