By EVA SOHLMAN
July 11, 2012
SANA, YEMEN — Odai Saleh’s large,
hollow eyes follow the movements around him lethargically and his emaciated,
birdlike face expresses no interest in the toy car next to him on the hospital
bed.
Nearly 5 years old, Odai weighs a
mere 10 kilograms, or 22 pounds. A few weeks ago he was brought to the
therapeutic feeding clinic at Sabeen Hospital here in Sana, the capital,
suffering from severe malnutrition. He had been sick for weeks with vomiting
and diarrhea despite treatment in Hamdan, his home village.
“Malnourished children like Odai are so
fragile, they are like glass,” said Rajia Sharhan, a pediatrician and nutrition
specialist with Unicef, describing the young victims of the worsening food
shortage in Yemen. Unicef, which supports the clinic, has scaled up its
nutrition intervention program in Yemen over the last three months.
Odai is fortunate. Unlike many
Yemenis, he is getting help and recovering; but aid agencies warn that the
crisis in Yemen is turning into a catastrophe.
The international community has
been slow in its response, and concerns are growing that the country’s already
tenuous democratic prospects may be at risk unless the transitional government
receives more foreign assistance in meeting people’s essential needs.
“It’s worse than we had thought,” said Jamal
Benomar, the United Nations envoy to Yemen. “The latest figures for Yemen are
not far from the situation in Sahel in Africa or Afghanistan, but unfortunately
this is not attracting attention from the world.”
Hunger in Yemen — the poorest
country in the Middle East — has doubled since 2009, according to the World
Food Program. The ability of families to feed their children has deteriorated
significantly in the last year as food and fuel prices have soared amid the
political turmoil and economic activity has ground to a near halt.
About 10 million Yemenis, or 44
percent of the population, no longer have enough to eat, and 5 million are in
need of urgent emergency aid, according to a report from the World Food Program
in May. Over a quarter of a million children are so malnourished that they risk
dying, and nearly half of all children under 5 years old are chronically
malnourished, putting their physical and mental development at risk, the report
said.
Some 90 percent of Yemenis have
been affected by higher food and fuel prices, the report said, and the
situation is expected to stay difficult because the country depends on
international food markets, where prices remain high.
Other contributing factors include
a lack of clean drinking water, high unemployment and poverty. Nearly half the
population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day.
While there is still food in the
markets, there are signs that supplies are shrinking, the World Food Program
said. The country’s agricultural potential is limited by water shortages and
the cultivation and consumption of qat, a water-intensive plant producing the
mild narcotic leaf that Yemenis like to chew.
For households in urban areas, the
breakdown in law and order has made it harder to get food.
Under a deal brokered by the Gulf
Cooperation Council last November, Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to end his 33-year
presidential rule and allow for a peaceful democratic transition, following street
protests and international pressure. But Mr. Saleh and his allies have
challenged the new president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, creating tension in the
capital and curbing chances of finding a way out of intertribal and clan
rivalries that have led to street battles and hampered the transition to
democracy.
Conflicts in the north and south
of the country have aggravated the situation, particularly in the south, where
militants linked to Al Qaeda expanded their presence during last year’s chaos.
At least 95,000 people were forced to leave their homes as a result of
conflicts this spring — bringing the number of internally displaced refugees to
more than half a million, according to the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Many Yemenis have run out of
options. Families talk of skipping meals for several days, pulling their
children out of school to beg in the streets and selling whatever they can to
survive. More than one third of households have a food-related debt, and one quarter
of all food is now bought with borrowed money, the World Food Program said.
Ibrahim Sharqieh, deputy director
of the Brookings Doha Center, who recently visited the country, said people
were talking openly about starvation.
“The fact that tribal leaders were mentioning
it to me I find alarming,” Mr. Sharqieh said, “because it means it’s part of
the Yemeni consciousness now.”
Confronting this growing
desperation, Yemenis, aid agencies and analysts say the cautious response of
international donors is inadequate and their demands for better security are
unrealistic.
A meeting of the Friends of Yemen
in Riyadh in May pledged $4 billion in humanitarian aid, of which $3.25 billion
was promised by Saudi Arabia. But promises are one thing, delivery another:
Only 46 percent of a U.N. humanitarian appeal for about $450 million in
December has been financed.
With conditions worsening, the
United Nations is increasing its appeal. The target will soon be raised by 25
to 30 percent and probably even more in coming months, officials said.
But it is unclear where the money
will come from. A major donor conference late last month was postponed and may
not happen until September.
“Nothing is happening right now, that’s the
most alarming,” said Mr. Sharqieh, who said international donors “almost only
focus on security and politics” without paying enough attention to the
humanitarian and economic situation.
Penny Lawrence, the international
director of Oxfam, rejected arguments that the difficult security situation made
it impossible to distribute aid or that the country was incapable of absorbing
it.
“The aid can get out directly,” Ms. Lawrence
said, echoing assessments by workers at Unicef, Save the Children and smaller
aid agencies, who say they rely on local networks to reach the most dangerous
and remote parts of the country.
She said the international
community should focus on direct cash distribution to people because the core
problem was not a lack of food, but money.
There are fears that Mr. Hadi
could lose hearts and minds over the crisis, which would have dangerous
implications. So far he has had some success in restructuring the military and
pushing back against militants linked to Al Qaeda. But he has failed to deliver
basic services like clean water, electricity and humanitarian assistance.
“His performance on it is zero,” Mr. Sharqieh
of Brookings said.
That failure could undermine the
Gulf-brokered political deal for a transition to a more popularly based regime.
“He doesn’t have much time,” Mr. Sharqieh
said. “His credibility will erode in the capital and political stability is at
risk unless he starts delivering soon.”
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