Three UN agencies on Friday (February 10th) launched an appeal for emergency food aid to Yemen to avoid a humanitarian "catastrophe" that will hit children hardest, AFP reported.
An assessment by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), UNICEF and the World Food Programme, found "unprecedented" levels of hunger, with the number of people who could not be sure of having enough to eat up by three million in seven months.
A total of 17.1 million people are now struggling to feed themselves, with 7.3 million of those in need of emergency assistance. Yemen has a population of 27.4 million.
The joint study was the first of its kind since the conflict escalated in March 2015.
One fallout of the fighting has been a slump in agricultural production across the country, contributing to soaring malnutrition.
"We are witnessing some of the highest numbers of malnutrition amongst children in Yemen in recent times," said Meritxell Relano, UNICEF's representative in the country.
"Children who are severely and acutely malnourished are 11 times more at risk of death as compared to their healthy peers, if not treated in time," Relano said.
