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STORY: GENEVA / YEMEN FAMINE
TRT: 02:43
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 11 DECEMBER 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / RECENT
RECENT - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior wide shot, Palais des Nations main entrance, a sunny day
11 DECEMBER 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Tomson Phiri, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“Yemen remains one of the worst humanitarian crises that the world has ever seen. What is happening right now is that the window to prevent famine in the country is narrowing very fast. We are running out of time. The number of children that need treatment for acute malnutrition, as I speak, is about two million with approximately 360,000 at risk of dying in case they don’t get any treatment.”
4. Wide shot, press briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Tomson Phiri, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“We are also concerned about pregnant or nursing women who also require treatment or acute malnutrition. There are, as I speak to you right now, that number stands at approximately one million.”
6. Med shot, spokesperson in press briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tomson Phiri, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“We are talking of a population of about 30 ½ million, yet 24,3 million are in need of humanitarian assistance of some kind, and approximately 60 million people cannot put food on their tables. This is a disaster; this is a ticking time bomb and the world needs to act and to act now.”
8. Wide shot, press briefing room with cameraman
9.SOUNDBITE (English) Babar Baloch, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“Food insecurity is prevalent in areas of conflict, where half of Yemen’s four million displaced population resides. They live in and around the 16 districts worst affected by acute food insecurity, in Marib, Al Bayda, Abyan, Taizz, Hadramautand and Al Jawf governorates. They are increasingly at risk of famine-like conditions.”
10. Med shot, spokespersons on screen in press briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Babar Baloch, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“Women are disproportionately impacted, in a country where socio-cultural norms often restrict their access to work. Many IDP women, including single and widowed women, report feeling excluded from humanitarian aid in Yemen because of cultural and social obstacles which restrict them from going out to provide for their families.
12. Wide shot, podium press briefing room with screen
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Babar Baloch, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“To put food on the table, many displaced families are selling off belongings, pulling children out of school and sending them to work, begging on the streets, or eating just once a day.”
14. Med shot, journalist in press briefing room
15. Med shot, journalist in press briefing room
16. Med shot, spokespersons at podium
The World Food Programme (WFP) warned today (11 Dec) that looming famine in Yemen “is a ticking time bomb and the world needs to act now.”
After accepting the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for its work to eliminate hunger, the WFP today urged the world to take urgent action to prevent famine in Yemen.
United Nations data on food insecurity released this month indicates that pockets of famine-like conditions in Yemen are already present. The number of Yemenis experiencing this drastic level of food insecurity could nearly triple from 16,500 currently to 47,000 people by June.
“Yemen remains one of the worst humanitarian crises that the world has ever seen,” Tomson Phiri, spokesperson for the WFP said on Friday at the United Nations in Geneva.
“What is happening right now is that the window to prevent famine in the country is narrowing very fast. We are running out of time. The number of children that need treatment for acute malnutrition, as I speak, is about 2 million with approximately 360, 000 at risk of dying in case they don’t get any treatment,” he added
Another 3.6 million Yemenis are just one degree of hunger away from famine, and that could rise to 5 million by June, according to UN data.
“We are also concerned about pregnant or nursing women who also require treatment for acute malnutrition,” Phiri reported. “There are, as I speak to you right now, that number stands at approximately 1 million.”
In total more than 16 million people -– over half of Yemen’s population – will be facing crisis levels of food insecurity by mid-2021.
“We are talking of a population of about 30 ½ million, yet 24,3 million are in need of humanitarian assistance of some kind, and approximately 60 million people cannot put food on their tables. This is a disaster; this is a ticking time bomb and the world needs to act and to act now,” Phiri said.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warns that hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Yemenis are at heightened risk of food insecurity as livelihoods have been lost to the combined effects of ceaseless violence and COVID-19 pandemic.
“Food insecurity is prevalent in areas of conflict, where half of Yemen’s four million displaced population resides. They live in and around the 16 districts worst affected by acute food insecurity, in Marib, Al Bayda, Abyan, Taizz, Hadramautand and Al Jawf governorates. They are increasingly at risk of famine-like conditions,” UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch told reporters today.
UNHCR is worried about the impact on the most vulnerable among the internally displaced people (IDPs). Six years of conflict have taken a brutal toll on civilians, pushing one in eight Yemenis into displacement, the refugee agency says.
“Women are disproportionately impacted, in a country where socio-cultural norms often restrict their access to work”, said UNHCR’s Babar Baloch. “Many IDP women, including single and widowed women, report feeling excluded from humanitarian aid in Yemen because of cultural and social obstacles which restrict them from going out to provide for their families”.
For many in Yemen, conflict, displacement and gender inequity only compound the hardships they face. With rampant inflation and few livelihood opportunities, families no longer can afford basic meals.
“To put food on the table, many displaced families are selling off belongings, pulling children out of school and sending them to work, begging on the streets, or eating just once a day,” Baloch said.
The UN Refugee Agency is stepping up its support to the displaced families and their hosts in Yemen through direct cash assistance this winter.
Yemen faced a similar threat of famine in late 2018, but it was averted with an emergency economic package and the widespread scale-up of humanitarian assistance.
