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A6 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 16 March 2022
'Harrowing figures': Yemen report says 161K to face famine

By SAMY MAGDY The report stressed the war
CAIRO (AP) — More than a in Yemen is the main driver
dozen U.N. agencies and of hunger and the crisis is
international aid groups likely to deteriorate due to
said Monday that 161,000 the war in Ukraine. Yemen
people in war-torn Yemen depends almost entirely on
are likely to experience food imports, with 30% of its
famine over the second wheat imports coming from
half of 2022 — a fivefold Ukraine, the U.N. agencies
increase from the current said.
figure. "Peace is required to end
The stark warning came in the decline, but we can
a report by the Integrated make progress now. The
Food Security Phase Clas- parties to the conflict
sification, or IPC, ahead of should lift all restrictions on
an annual fund-raising con- trade and investment for
ference that the United Na- non-sanctioned commodi-
tions is hosting on Wednes- ties," said David Gressly, the
day. The IPC is a global U.N. humanitarian coordi-
partnership of 15 U.N. nator for Yemen.
agencies and humanitar- Separately, Farhan Haq,
ian organizations working in the U.N. deputy spokes-
Yemen and funded by the man, said funding short-
European Union, the USAID ages have forced aid pro-
and UKAID. It tracks and grams to scale down or
measures food insecurity in close altogether in Yemen.
conflict-stricken regions. A malnourished boy Maher Ahmed is placed on a scale at a feeding center at Al-Sabeen hospital He said food aid for 8 mil-
The report underscores the in Sanaa, Yemen, Nov. 3, 2020. lion has been drastically
dire situation in the poorest Associated Press cut back and in the com-
Arab nation that plunged ing weeks, nearly 4 million
into civil war for in 2014, recognized government to appealing for immediate severely malnourished, and people could lose access
when Yemen's Iran-backed power. The war has dete- funding to "avert imminent about 1.3 million women, to clean water and sanita-
Houthi rebels took con- riorated largely into a stale- disaster and save millions." could be acutely malnour- tion, he said.
trol of the capital, Sanaa, mate and caused one of The IPC report says 19 mil- ished by the end of the Haq described the upcom-
and much of the country's the world's worst humani- lion people in Yemen — out year, the report said. ing fund-raiser as "an oppor-
north, forcing the govern- tarian crises. of a population of more "More and more children tunity to demonstrate that
ment to flee to the south, "These harrowing figures than 30 million — are likely are going to bed hungry the world has not forgotten
then to Saudi Arabia. confirm that we are on a to unable to meet their in Yemen," said Catherine Yemen, even as other cri-
A Saudi-led coalition en- countdown to catastrophe minimum food needs be- Russell, UNICEF's executive ses are demanding global
tered the war in March in Yemen and we are al- tween June and Decem- director. "This puts them at attention" and called on
2015, backed at the time most out of time to avoid it," ber, up from 17.4 million. increased risk of physical donors to "pledge gener-
by the U.S., in an effort to said David Beasley, head Also, 2.2 million children, and cognitive impairment, ously and to disburse funds
restore the internationally of the World Food Program, including 538,000 already and even death." quickly,"q

India court upholds ban on hijab in schools and colleges

state delivered the verdict shawls, a color closely as- Over the last few weeks,
after considering petitions sociated with that religion the issue has become a
filed by Muslim students and favored by Hindu na- flashpoint for the battle
challenging a government tionalists. over the rights of Muslims,
ban on hijabs that some More schools in the state who fear they are being
schools and colleges have followed with similar bans shunted aside as a minority
implemented in the last and the state's top court in India and see hijab bans
two months. The ban does disallowed students from as a worrying escalation of
not extend to other Indian wearing hijab and any re- Hindu nationalism under
states, but the court ruling ligious clothing pending a Modi's government.
could set a precedent for verdict. Some rights activists have
the rest of the country. The court in its ruling said voiced concerns that the
The dispute began in Janu- the state government had ban could increase Islamo-
ary when a government- the power to prescribe uni- phobia.
run school in Karnataka's form guidelines for students "No one can understand
Indian Muslim students wearing burqas leave Mahatma Gandhi Udupi district barred stu- as a "reasonable restriction our anxiousness about what
Memorial college after they were denied entry into the campus
in Udupi, Karnataka state, India, Feb. 24, 2022. dents wearing hijabs from on fundamental rights." is to follow," Afreen Fatima,
Associated Press entering classrooms, trig- The ruling came at a time a New Delhi-based student
gering protests by Muslims when violence and hate activist, wrote on Twitter.
NEW DELHI (AP) — An In- essential religious practice who said they were being speech against Muslims "The court's Hijab ban is a
dian court Tuesday upheld of Islam in a ruling that is deprived of their funda- have increased under great injustice and a very
a ban on wearing hijab in likely to further deepen re- mental rights to education Prime Minister Narendra worrying precedence. The
class in the southern state ligious tensions in the coun- and religion. That led to Modi's governing Hindu na- scale of its repercussion
of Karnataka, saying the try. counterprotests by Hindu tionalist party, which also is going to be brutal and
Muslim headscarf is not an The high court in Karnataka students wearing saffron governs Karnataka state. inhuman."q