Americas

Americas

UN agency calls for making combating malnutrition "top priority" in Yemen

26 May 2012 00:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-- The UN Children’s Fund ( UNICEF) is drawing attention to the importance of fighting malnutrition in Yemen after a May 23 meeting on the situation, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters here Friday.

"The United Nations Children’s Fund has called for fighting malnutrition to be the top priority in Yemen," said Nesirky. "This call follows a meeting of the ’Friends of Yemen’ in Saudi Arabia which recognized the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen and resulted in 4 billion U.S. dollars in pledges to address the crisis."

Nesirky said that more than half of children under the age of five in Yemen are experiencing stunting in their growth, the second highest rate in the world.

"Nearly 1 million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished," he noted. "The fund said that the extremely poor humanitarian situation in Yemen is a result of both chronic underdevelopment and the violence last year."