Yemen is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis of rare proportions. According to the United Nations, around 17 million people go hungry more often than not, and 21 million are in need of humanitarian aid. Around 2 million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished.
To make matters worse, Yemen is experiencing an outbreak of cholera, possibly the worst in history: some 500,000 people have contracted the disease since late April. About two thousand have already died of it, most of them children under 15 and people over the age of 60. The disease, which is caused by water contaminated with the Vibrio bacterium, is characterized by diarrhea, stomach pains and severe dehydration.
Sadly, his humanitarian catastrophe is man-made. Nearly three years ago, war broke out when Houthi militias seized the capital of Sana'a. Within six months, and at the request of the Government of Yemen, a coalition led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began airstrikes on rebel positions to halt their southward expansion. The ongoing conflict has so far killed about 10,000 civilians, displaced millions, damaged public infrastructure, and interrupted the delivery of imports in a country that relies on them to feed its people.
