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U.N. says 80 percent of Yemeni children need humanitarian aid

In this March 11, 2017, file photo, acutely malnourished child Sacdiyo Mohamed, 9 months old, is treated at the Banadir Hospital after her mother Halima Hassan Mohamed fled the drought in southern Somalia and traveled by car to the capital Mogadishu, in Somalia. (Mohamed Sheikh Nor / Associated Press)
Associated Press

CAIRO – Three U.N agencies say nearly 80 percent of Yemeni children need immediate humanitarian assistance amid the collapse of the country’s health system in the face of the two-year-long civil war.

The heads of the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and World Food Program said in a joint statement on Wednesday that 2 million Yemeni children are malnourished, making them vulnerable to cholera.

Yemen is facing the world’s worst cholera outbreak in years.

The agencies called on the international community to intensify its support for the Yemenis.

A two-year Saudi-led campaign against Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels has damaged infrastructure and caused medicine shortages in the Arab world’s poorest country. The war has killed more than 10,000 civilians, displaced 3 million people and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.