Statement attributable to Peter Power, Executive Director of UNICEF Ireland
NOTE: THIS STATEMENT IS PARTNER TO THE EMBARGOED PRESS RELEASE ISSUED ON YEMEN REPORT
NOTE: PETER POWER IS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW
Dublin 26.06.2020 –UNICEF has today warned that millions of children in Yemen will be pushed to “the brink of starvation” due to huge shortfalls in humanitarian aid funding amidst the COVID-19 epidemic.
Reacting to the news, Executive Director of UNICEF Ireland Peter Power said: “Life for children in Yemen is horrible. It is the worst place in the World to be a child. Nowhere is safe after five years of war and things are getting worse. What fragile life-saving health and nutrition services were in place are now threatened by the arrival of Covid-19. Children face a new and frightening chapter in this saga – 30,000 of them are at risk of Severe Acute Malnutrition and could starve. If they survive the experience, it will have stunted their development and damaged their prospects for life.
“Even in the midst of a global pandemic, we are warning that the situation for children in Yemen demands special attention. This is the World’s worst humanitarian emergency.
“We must force ourselves to hear this warning. Children in Yemen desperately need humanitarian aid, and safe corridors for that aid to flow through. When aid supplies are interrupted, children die.”
“Children in Yemen need peace; until that is achieved, we must do everything we can to help them survive.”
Read more about the Yemen five years on: Children, conflict and COVID-19 report
Read more about our work for children in Yemen.
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For more information, please contact:
Aedín Donnelly, Communications and Media Manager for UNICEF Ireland, aedin@unicef.ie, Tel: +353 1 809 0291, Mob: +353 85 1395272
