Yemen Five Years On: Children, conflict and COVID-19

Children in Yemen are facing a daily struggle to survive in what is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. After five years of conflict, around four in five children – 12.3 million – are in desperate need of aid. Tens of thousands of children have died, both as a direct result of the fighting and from indirect causes like disease and malnutrition. More than 1.7 million children have been forced to flee their homes and are living in camps or improvised settings in other parts of Yemen. Devastating food and cholera crises emerged during the conflict; while violence persistently blights lives, with more than 35 frontlines still active across the country. The nation’s health services are on the verge of collapse and the economy has been ravaged. The arrival of COVID-19 in the country layers a new emergency on top of an emergency, leading to fears of how far an already dire humanitarian situation could deteriorate.