Malnutrition and the risk of a cholera outbreak are threatening lives at Yemen’s main camp for people fleeing fighting in the north, a UN official warned yesterday.
Clashes between Yemeni troops and rebels in the northern Saada province have driven 175,000 people from their homes, according to the UN.
More than 10,000 are staying in Al Mazraq camp in neighbouring Hajjah province and twice as many people have settled outside the camp, Thomas Davin, a regional chief for the UN children’s fund Unicef, told Reuters.
The majority of the displaced are children and women because men tend to stay behind to protect their homes and to fight, he said.
“Malnutrition is the greatest concern about displaced children,” Davin said.
Severe acute malnutrition—a life-threatening condition—is much more common among children who have fled Saada province than in Yemen in general, which already has very high levels of child malnutrition.
Unicef is also worried about a possible outbreak of cholera because poor hygiene and overcrowding create perfect conditions for the potentially deadly disease, Davin said.
Few of the displaced are used to washing regularly because water is scarce in Yemen and few use toilets, preferring to leave waste in the open.
“Hygiene is terrible, really, really terrible,” Davin said.
Local customs complicate aid efforts.
In some cases, parents have given foods meant for treating malnourished children to their animals, which they view as part of the family and take with them when they flee.
“People say ‘if we lose the sheep it’s not the child that dies, it’s the whole family’,” Davin said.
“A number of these people who are making it out are saying that it’s generally at least their second or their third displacement because this is the fifth time that war has broken out in the province since 2004,” he added. “Each time of course they spent more money and more of whatever resources they had going around.” |
