{"id":4686,"date":"2015-06-12T15:26:34","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T14:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=4686"},"modified":"2015-06-12T15:26:34","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T14:26:34","slug":"80-percent-of-yemenis-need-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/80-percent-of-yemenis-need-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"80 percent of Yemenis need aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yemen\"<\/a>Eighty percent of Yemen\u2019s population, or more than 20 million people, need some form of humanitarian assistance as Arab air strikes and civil war ravage the impoverished country, aid agency UNICEF said on Thursday.
\nThe figure is up by almost 5 million people since the organization\u2019s latest report last week.
\nFor over 11 weeks, an Arab military coalition has been bombing the Houthi militia, the dominant group in Yemen at the moment, in a bid to restore the country\u2019s exiled president to power and support local fighters resisting the Houthi advance in battlefields nationwide.
\nThe alliance\u2019s de facto blockade of Yemen\u2019s air space and ports has cut off supplies of food and fuel to the parched country, where gas-powered pumps providing water for drinking and sanitation now lie mostly inoperable.
\n\u201c20.4 million people are now estimated to be in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, of whom 9.3 million are children,\u201d Jeremy Hopkins, Deputy Representative of UNICEF, said from the capital Sanaa.
\n\u201cThe de facto blockade on Yemen\u2019s ports, though there is some easing, means fuel is not coming into the country, and since pumps are mechanized that means over 20 million people don\u2019t have access to safe water,\u201d he added.
\nOther urgent humanitarian needs, he said, include malnutrition, shortages of medical supplies, mounting civilian casualties in air strikes, recruitment of child soldiers and damage to schools by the warring sides.
\nEven before the conflict, UNICEF said around 10 million people in Yemen needed humanitarian assistance, a product of decades of underdevelopment in the mountainous and barely governed Arabian Peninsula state.
\nMohammed Shabeek fled his house with his wife and three children due to gun battles and worsening sanitation in his home district of Crater in the southern city of Aden.
\n\u201cThe scene around my house is catastrophic. There\u2019s no water, electricity or food. Trash piles up in the street and we\u2019re afraid of disease. Aid agencies need to get to these areas by any means necessary,\u201d he said while seeking refuge in a relative\u2019s house in the city.
\nA local medical official in the city said dozens of people have died in the city in recent weeks due to a sudden uptick in dengue fever and malaria brought on by the shortage of water and lack of rubbish collection as temperatures soar.<\/p>\n

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