WHO Warns: 75% of Yemeni Kids ‘Chronically Malnourished’, Yemeni Population Engulfed in Food Insecurity - FARS

(FNA)- The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that 75 percent of Yemeni children suffer from acute malnutrition, as Saudi Arabia keeps bombing the Southern impoverished neighbor in defiance of international calls to end its bloody war.

In a post on its Twitter account on Monday, the UN agency responsible for international public health warned that three out of four children in Yemen are “chronically malnourished”, presstv reported.

It also estimated that 16.2 million Yemenis – more than half of the country’s population of 30 million – are food insecure.

Acute malnutrition is responsible for almost one-third of all deaths in children under five years of age. It damages a child’s physical development and causes intellectual or cognitive impairment among those who survive. Malnutrition is largely irreversible, perpetuating illness, poverty, and inequality.

Back in February, four UN agencies, including the WHO, warned that acute malnutrition and severe acute malnutrition have increased by 16 and 22 percent, respectively, among Yemeni children under five years of age from 2020.

The figures are among the highest levels of malnutrition recorded in the country since the Saudi war began in 2015, they added.