Statement of Entesaf organization In the Breastfeeding Day

Intisaf Organization: In the World Breastfeeding Week, women and children are the groups most at risk from the suffering caused by the aggression, as it has caused a decrease in breastfeeding rates in Yemen, which may lead to high rates of malnutrition and mortality among women and children.

While the United Nations described the humanitarian catastrophe that Yemen is going through as one of the worst in the world, as there are 21.6 million Yemenis who need some form of aid in 2023 AD, Yemeni women and children live under the burden of lack of health care, killing, displacement, and displacement. It violates and robs them of all their rights claimed by international laws, charters and treaties, as the number of victims of the US-Saudi aggression against women and children in Yemen has reached more than 13,698 dead and wounded since the start of the aggression on Yemen.

As women and children in Yemen face one of the saddest forms of reality, especially when it comes to their right to personal safety and to receive health care, especially for women during pregnancy and childbirth. Before the outbreak of aggression, Yemeni children and women had one of the highest death rates in the world. Some 12.6 million women and 11 million children need life-saving reproductive health services, protection and humanitarian assistance.

Today, with the passage of eight years since the crisis, the war and the humanitarian crisis, which is described as the worst in the world, has exacerbated the suffering of new mothers and pregnant women, as there are more than 1.5 million pregnant and breastfeeding women suffering from malnutrition, of whom 650,495 are malnourished. Average nutrition, and while a woman and six newborns die every two hours due to complications during pregnancy or during childbirth, and the number of women who may lose their lives during pregnancy or childbirth is estimated at approximately 17 thousand women, while more than 2.3 million children under the age of five have been recorded suffering from malnutrition and 632,000 children from severe acute malnutrition, which threatens their lives with death. In addition, more than 50% of childbirths are performed by non-specialists.

In addition, an estimated 8.1 million women and girls of childbearing age in Yemen need assistance in accessing reproductive health services, and it is expected that 195,000 of them will develop complications that require medical assistance to save their lives and the lives of their newborn children. According to statistics, less than 50% of births in Yemen are currently attended by health professionals. It is reported that a mother and six newborns die every two hours in Yemen due to complications that occur during pregnancy and from causes that can be avoided in normal circumstances, and the main reason for these deaths is the lack of access to health services. This reality is exacerbated by the fact that only half of the health facilities in Yemen are operating at full capacity, while 35% of reproductive health centers and clinics have lost their ability to function.

We call on the international community and international organizations to assume legal and humanitarian responsibility for the violations and heinous massacres that civilians of the Yemeni people are subjected to, calling on the free people of the world to take effective and positive action to stop the aggression and protect civilians, including women and children. We call on the United Nations, the Security Council, and human rights and humanitarian bodies to assume their legal and humanitarian responsibility for the heinous crimes committed by the coalition of aggression against the people of Yemen, and to pressure towards stopping the aggression and lifting the siege. #Entisaf _ Organization