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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 1 august 2018

Aid agency says Yemen port shutdown could double needy

By EDITH M. LEDERER rates what I saw of chil-
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The dren with malnutrition, with
already "staggering" num- people who are looking for
ber of 8.4 million Yemenis one meal per day, not hav-
who don't know where ing their basic health needs
their next meal will come met, Maxman said.
from could double very They feel grateful, she said,
quickly if ports in the rebel- "to be in an internally dis-
held north are attacked placed persons' camp."
and shut down, the head Maxman said she was
of the aid agency Oxfam struck by Yemen's endemic
America said Tuesday. inequality which she saw
Abby Maxman, who spent first-hand in the capital
a week in northern Yemen Sanaa — grocery stores
earlier this month, said in an stocked with all kinds of
interview with The Associ- food and fruit and even a
ated Press that the coun- popcorn machine and a
try is already "on the brink cotton candy machine,
of starvation or ultimately and people struggling to
famine, and the tipping find something to eat.
point for that could hap- The Yemen conflict was
pen very quickly." sparked by the Houthi take-
Government forces, over of Yemen's capital Sa-
backed by a Saudi-led naa in 2014, which routed
coalition, are trying to re- Abby Maxman, president of anti-poverty aid group of Oxfam America, speaks in New York the internationally recog-
take the port city of Ho- Tuesday, July 31, 2018. nized government. A Sau-
deida, the main entry point Associated Press di-led coalition allied with
for food in a country de- the government has been
pendent on imports, from massive" if Hodeida and next meal will come from, and Amran "who have suf- at war with the Houthis
Iranian-allied Shiite rebels the other smaller Red Sea one can see that doubling fered at the hands of an since 2015.
known as Houthis. The Unit- ports controlled by the almost very quickly, or im- ongoing conflict that is far Maxman said: "If the con-
ed Nations said Hodeida Houthis shut down. mediately, if and when the larger than themselves for flict continues, if there is
remains open, but there is With a population just un- ports shut down." years" are very caught up an assault or an attack on
growing concern of the im- der 30 million, she said, 8.4 The president and CEO of in day-to-day survival and a major port, if things con-
pact of a port closure. million people "already are Oxfam America said fami- lack hope and the ability to tinue to go a certain way,
Maxman said "the humani- down to one meal per day lies she spoke to in camps see a future for themselves. it would be likely that risk of
tarian implications will be and don't know where their for the displaced in Khamer "And the data corrobo- famine increases."q