The war in Ukraine also means that donor funds will become scarcer even as donor focus on Yemen was already weakening. Planting season is already here, and as a good portion of Ukraine remains too dangerous to engage in farming, many farmers are either fighting or displaced. Worryingly, Ukraine is unlikely to come back soon as a major agricultural exporter. Internationally, wheat prices have gone up 25-30 percent since the start of the war and continue at historical highs, with bigger spikes in local markets as in Yemen. With the Black Sea effectively choked off and most Black Sea wheat going to the Middle East, the hike in wheat prices will also have an impact on regional stability. Food prices in Yemen had already doubled in 2021 and according to the International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC), they increased by 150 percent since the onset of the war in Ukraine. For Yemen which imports 95 percent of its overall needs, this will mean higher prices for grains, especially wheat, but also fuel and fertilizers. Both countries together account for 30-40 percent of Yemen’s wheat imports. This tragedy is likely to worsen as a result of the war Russia unleashed against Ukraine. It is estimated that 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, with some two-thirds in extreme poverty. Nearly 70 percent of Yemenis-20.7 million-rely on humanitarian assistance to survive. Some 1.3 million pregnant or nursing mothers are acutely malnourished. Around 2.2 million children face malnutrition, including over 500,000 with life-threatening severe acute malnutrition. The World Food Program (WFP) says 5 million risk slipping into famine-like conditions. Some 7.3 million could be at emergency levels of hunger by December 2022. Some 17.3 million Yemenis need food aid-a number that will likely increase to 19 million in the coming months. The rest are under government control and smaller numbers are under various groups, including UAE-backed groups, which oppose both the Houthis and the government. Of Yemen’s 30 million people, 24 million are under Houthi rule. The United Nations Development Program says the war has killed 377,000, w ith 150,000 directly tied to the war and the rest to hunger and diseases. The devastated health system and damages to water and sanitation facilities have led to the rapid spread of diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, measles, polio, and dengue. Half of Yemen’s hospitals are out of commission and over 2 million children are out of school. Hardest hit were health and education facilities, which were already in dire condition. The punishing Saudi air and sea blockade on Yemen was in its seventh year, with Saudi Arabia’s further restrictions on fuel imports since January 2021 worsening humanitarian conditions. In January 2022 alone there were 650 civilian casualties, the highest toll in three years, including a Saudi coalition air strike on a prison in Saada that killed and wounded over 300 people. The toll on the country and its people has been horrendous. Air strikes by the coalition have hit Sanaa-the main port of Hodeida-and other areas causing significant civilian casualties, a recurring tragedy since 2015. Since January 2022, the Saudi coalition had pushed back Houthi advances in Marib and Shabwa provinces even as mostly civilian infrastructure and facilities in the Emirates and Saudi Arabia came under attack from missiles and drones linked to Iranian assistance. The war, now in its eighth year, recently escalated. terms the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. This is a welcome respite for Yemen, which the U.N.
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