The forgotten war

By the end of this year, the United Nations warned recently, 377,000 Yemenis will have died from seven devastating years of war – in many cases killed by indirect causes such as hunger; in others, by airstrikes or missile bombardments. Seventy per cent of the fatalities are thought to be children under five.

Meanwhile, a humanitarian catastrophe that the UN has described as the worst in the world is deepening.

Just before Christmas, the World Food Programme said that it had been forced to cut aid due to insufficient funds, three months after it warned that 16 million Yemenis were “marching towards starvation”. Four million people are displaced.

This was the poorest country in the region even before the war broke out, with 47% of the population living in poverty. The UN has since warned that it is on course to become the poorest in the world, with 71%-78% of Yemenis now below the poverty line. Already inadequate infrastructure and services have been devastated, with schools and hospitals targeted. Both sides have shown a ruthless contempt for civilians.