More people in Yemen are dying from preventable health conditions as a result of the blockade on the country’s airports and ports by Saudi Arabia.
The blocking has affected lifesaving food and supplies from reaching 20 million people on the brink of famine, including over 11 million children. And to make matters worse, Yemen is facing the worst cholera outbreak in 100 years with 900,000 reported cases, already killing more than 2,000 people.
With action from compassionate supporters, the World Food Programme (WFP), an agency of the United Nations in an e-mail to this reporter on Tuesday said they were able to reach more than 7.2 million people with emergency food assistance in October and provide vital logistics services to the cholera emergency response, like airlifting medical supplies into the country.
But despite these recent successes,” the blockade could make an already catastrophic situation so much worse — tipping the country into full-scale famine and threatening the lives of millions”, WFP said in the e-mail.
UN leaders have issued an urgent appeal to reopen the ports to continue delivering lifesaving supplies to Yemen. Even with the partial lifting of the blockade, an additional 3.2 million people will be pushed into hunger.
The cost of this blockade is being measured in the number of lives lost.