Only one meal per day for children as embattled Yemenis hope for end of war

SANAA - As a 55-year-old father who cannot secure the next meal for his eight starving children, Ahmed al-Sharafi doesn't complain.

"There is always a glimmer of hope," he said.

Unlike millions of starving Yemenis, Sharafi is lucky as a charity bakery is only a few meters away from his house in a popular quarter east of the capital Sanaa.

"We were very comfortable before the war erupted ... but today I cannot afford a bottle of yogurt because it's too expensive," Sharafi said.

Sharafi receives 15 pieces of bread each morning from the bakery to feed his hungry children. But the allocation is not enough for one meal.

Around 750 families in Noqum receive the daily support of bread, according to those who fund the bakery.

Asked if his family has lunch or dinner, Sharafi lowered his head.

Nearly four years of devastating civil war, between the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and armed Houthi rebels, have killed more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, and displaced 3 million, while the all-out blockade and cut in salaries have pushed the country to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations aid agencies.

An estimated 85,000 children under the age of 5 may have died from extreme hunger between April 2015 and October 2018, according to the latest data released by Save the Children, an international organization for children's rights.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council last month that "about 14 million Yemeni people, half of the country's population, are facing pre-famine conditions, meaning they are entirely reliant on external aid for survival".

On Dec 6, the Yemeni parties started peace talks sponsored by the UN in Sweden to end the war. Two previous peace efforts failed to result in any political compromise.

The rival negotiators agreed on Saturday to exchange files of war prisoners as debates are under way over the reopening of Sanaa airport and the withdrawal of rival fighters from the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, according to statements from both the government and Houthi side.

Sharafi, the father and a resident of Sanaa, said he hopes the war will end very soon.

"We want all negotiating parties in Sweden to reach a final and complete solution to end the war ... for the sake of all Yemeni people," he said.

Xinhua