Starving children -Yemen’s grim legacy of war

Sanaa, (Hindustan Times), 7 July 2020 -  Masirah Saqer could barely open her eyes, as she struggled to swallow the milk her grandmother attempted to feed her with a syringe.  Nearby the cries of other malnourished children reverberated around the pink-walled hospital ward, a vivid reminder of the human cost of Yemen’s devastating conflict, which drags into a seventh year on Tuesday.  

Millions of children in Yemen now face starvation due to a lack of aid for the country, UNICEF said in June.  The long conflict has devastated the health system and displaced 3.3 million people who live in camps where cholera and other diseases are rife.  The humanitarian situation has worsened since Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015, leading a coalition in support of government forces against the rebels, who are in turn backed by Riyadh’s arch-rival Iran.  Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, including hundreds of children, in air strikes and raids.