

The ripple effects from war have tipped a country that could already barely feed itself over the edge. The naval blockade, enforcing a UN arms embargo on the rebels, has disrupted the entry of food and supplies. Strikes have destroyed storehouses, roads, schools, farms, factories, power grids and water stations. APĪround 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes. Five-month-old Udai Faisal died on March 24. The coalition argues that the rebels often use civilians and civilian locations as shields for their fighters. Coalition airstrikes appear to be “responsible for twice as many casualties as all other forces put together,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said.

The fighting and the heavy barrage of airstrikes have killed more than 9,000 people, including more than 3,000 civilians, according to the UN Human Rights Office. In the center of the country, they battle multiple Saudi-backed factions supporting the internationally recognized government that tenuously holds the southern city of Aden. But they continue to hold Sanaa and the north. The Saudi-led coalition launched its campaign on March 26, 2015, aiming to halt the advance of Shiite rebels known of Houthis who had taken over the capital, Sanaa, and stormed south.

Exact numbers for those who died from malnutrition and its complications are unknown, since the majority were likely unable to reach proper care. Even more alarming are the rates of severe acute malnutrition among children - the worst cases, where the body starts to waste away - doubling from around 160,000 a year ago to 320,000 now, according to UNICEF estimates. Where before the war around 690,000 children under 5 suffered moderate malnutrition, now the number is 1.3 million. Ten of the country’s 22 provinces are classified as one step away from famine. The number of people considered “severely food insecure” - unable to put food on the table without outside aid - went from 4.3 million to more than 7 million, according to the World Food Program. The impoverished nation of 26 million people, which imports 90 percent of its food, already had one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world, but in the past year, the statistics have leaped. The spread of hunger has been the most horrific consequence of Yemen’s war since Saudi Arabia and its allies, backed by the United States, launched a campaign of airstrikes and a naval blockade a year ago. “He didn’t cry and there were no tears, just stiff,” said his mother, Intissar Hezzam. He vomited yellow fluid from his nose and mouth. Five months later, Udai Faisal died from war: His skeletal body broke down under the ravages of malnutrition, his limbs like twigs, his cheeks sunken, his eyes dry. HAZYAZ, Yemen - The baby was born in war, even as planes blasted his village in Yemen.
