The United Nations’ migration agency has warned of an imminent humanitarian crisis in Yemen as famine and cholera engulf the war-ravaged nation.

Director General of the International Organisation for Migration William Lacy Swing warned of the unfolding crisis while urging authorities to permit an immediate expansion of humanitarian access in order to save lives.

“There is a veneer of normalcy in Sana’a with people thronging busy streets. This disguises the deep crisis that Yemenis are facing,” Mr Swing said.

“Already eighty per cent of the population – 21 million people – are in desperate need of aid as a result of years of armed conflict, which regularly sees clashes and aerial bombings of urban areas,” he said.

“These 21 million vulnerable Yemenis, along with tens of thousands of migrants passing through the country, do not know where their next meal is coming from.

“Basic sanitation has broken down across much of the country and millions are without clean water.

“The authorities have a responsibility to give humanitarians more access, including reopening the airport for essential aid deliveries, and the world has an obligation to come to the aid of the Yemeni people,” Mr Swing said.

In Yemen the escalating armed conflict is restricting humanitarian aid delivery, aggravating malnutrition and spreading disease.

The world’s worst cholera outbreak is now part of this volatile mix and some estimates say as many as one million Yemenis will contract the deadly disease by the end of this year.

Already, there have been more than 2,000 deaths from the cholera outbreak since October 2016.

Cholera can be deadly within hours but is easily preventable through basic hygiene.

But Yemen’s healthcare and sanitation services are facing complete breakdown because of the conflict.

So far, some 750,000 Yemenis have been stricken by cholera – up from 276,000 last July – and more than 5,000 additional people are being infected every day.

Also, more than three million of Yemeni children under the age of five are at risk of severe acute malnutrition as the risk of famine increases.

The bloody internecine conflict, which has convulsed Yemen for over two years already, shows no sign of being resolved.

It has displaced more than three million people from their homes.

Mr Swing said that of specific concern was plight of almost 6,000 migrants who continue to enter the country each month arriving in the hope that they can make their way through Yemen to the Gulf countries to find work.

“Few realise the grave dangers they are likely to face along the route, like exploitation and other abuse. Many are abducted by criminal gangs upon landing in Yemen,” he said.

“A common technique is to call the migrant’s family while allowing burning plastic from an empty water bottle drip on a migrant’s skin causing burns and excruciating pain.

“Families usually pay up quickly and the migrants continue their journey often to be extorted repeatedly by different gangs before reaching their destination,” Mr Swing said.

The Yemeni Civil War is an ongoing conflict that began in 2015 between two factions claiming to constitute the Yemeni government, along with their supporters and allies.

Southern separatists – the largest numerical force – and forces loyal to the government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, based in Aden, have clashed with Houthi forces and forces loyal to the former president Ali Abdulah Saleh.

Laurie Nowell
AMES Australia Senior Journalist