Five Million Yemenis ’One Step Away From Famine’ In 2021

By Staff, Agencies

The United Nations [UN] warned that 5 million people in war-torn Yemen "will likely be living just one step away from famine" in 2021, urging immediate support.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] on Sunday warned that 5 million Yemenis "will likely be living just one step away from famine in the upcoming year."

FAO said in a brief statement posted on its official Twitter account that more than half of Yemen's overall population could head further into hunger in 2021.

An estimated 50,000 people will be living in famine-like conditions in the war-ravaged Arab country during 2021, the statement added.

Immediate support is urgently needed to save Yemen as "UN response remains only 49 percent funded," FAO noted.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched their devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back to power and crush the Ansarullah revolutionary movement.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project [CLED], a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past five years.

Riyadh and its allies have widely been criticized for the high civilian death toll as a result of their bombing campaign in Yemen.

The UN refers to the situation in Yemen as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.