audio, stills, text and or video: Go to zReportage.com to see more. The number of people facing starvation in Yemen could rise to nearly 12 million as conflict intensifies around the port of Hodeidah, a vital aid delivery link, according to the World Food Program. A collapsing currency and deteriorating economic situation in the Middle East's poorest country are also aggravating the situation. 18 million people in Yemen already do not know where their next meal is coming from and eight million of those are ''considered on the brink of famine.'' Yemenis are starving because of war. No natural disaster is responsible. No amount of humanitarian aid can solve the underlying problem. Without an immediate, significant course change, portions of the country, under the watch of the UN Security Council, will likely tip into famine. UNICEF reports that 460,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition. Avoiding famine, if this is still possible, requires the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, supporting the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi against Houthi rebels and fighters aligned with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, to halt what promises to be a bloody battle for Yemen's most important port, Hodeida. Yemenis need a ceasefire and a durable political settlement to have a chance at rebuilding the shattered economy. By numbers, Yemen is suffering from the largest food crisis in the world. According to the UN, an estimated seventeen million persons, 60 per cent of the population and three million more than were so afflicted at the start of the year, are food insecure and require urgent humanitarian assistance to save lives. Seven of the country's 22 govern-orates are at a phase four emergency food insecurity level, one step away from phase five: famine.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Oct 1, 2018 - Hajjah Province, Yemen - A malnourished child is held by an adult's hand at a hospital in Hajjah province, Yemen, Oct. 1, 2018.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Aug 12, 2018 - Saada, Yemen - Children injured in an airstrike receive medical treatment in a hospital in Saada. Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition targeted passenger buses in the Dhahyan market in northern Yemen, killing at least 43 people, mostly children under 10, and injuring 64 others.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Aug 13, 2018 - Dhahyan, Yemen - Boys carry a coffin of a child, who died in Saudi-led airstrikes that killed dozens of children, at a funeral in Dhahyan, northern province of Saada, Yemen. Thousands of Yemeni people attended the funeral. Saudi-led airstrikes hit passenger buses in the Dhahyan market on Aug. 9, killing at least 43 people, mostly children under 10, and injuring 64 others.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Sep 2, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - A malnourished 4-year girl waits to be checked by doctors while she receives treatment at a malnutrition department in a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, on Sept. 2, 2018. Millions of people in the war-torn Yemen are unable to secure one meal a day.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Sep 2, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - A malnourished 4-year girl is weighed while she receives treatment at a hospital in Sanaa. Millions of people in the war-torn Yemen are unable to secure one meal a day.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
June 6, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - People inspect the ruins of a destroyed building hit by airstrikes in Sanaa. Saudi-led coalition launched a series of airstrikes on the Yemeni capital on Tuesday evening, hours after UN special envoy Martin Griffiths left the rebel-held Sanaa following three days of talks.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire)
© Jul 10, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - A Yemeni child carries a bag filled with recyclable items collected from a garbage dump on the outskirts of Sanaa. Credit Image: © Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Feb 27, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - Students play violin during a music class at the Cultural Center in Sanaa. Amid the difficult circumstances caused by the three-year conflict, some Yemenis attend free music classes to alleviate their suffering.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Jul 22, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - A displaced child stands at the entrance of a house at a slum area in Sanaa. Displaced families from Yemen's port city of Hodeidah, who couldn't find chances to enter the displaced persons camps in Sanaa, stay in the slum area instead. More than 35,000 families have recently been displaced from Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah due to fierce fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on July 16.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Feb 26, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - Disabled students take part in a rally demanding an immediate end of conflict in front of the UN office in Sanaa, Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015. The war has killed over 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced 3 million others while also triggering a humanitarian crises.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Jun 4, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - A worker sprays anti-cholera disinfectant among trees during an anti-cholera campaign. An anti-cholera campaign has been launched to prevent the outbreak of the cholera epidemic here. The United Nations has listed Yemen as having the world's number one humanitarian crisis, with 7 million Yemenis on the brink of famine and cholera which has already caused more than 2,000 deaths.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Jul 15, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - Internally displaced Yemeni children who fled their homes in Hodeidah fill their bottles with water at a displaced camp on July 15, 2018. More than 121,000 residents have fled the war-torn city of Hodeidah and other parts of the province since June 1st.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Oct 28, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - Yemeni bridegrooms in traditional wedding clothes take part in a mass wedding in Sanaa. Fifty couples from families who have difficulties in holding wedding ceremonies joined a mass wedding to reduce expenses.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Jul 24, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - People collect clean water from a water pump during a water crisis in Sanaa. According to the World Health Organization, millions of Yemenis have no access to clean running water due to the ongoing conflict.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Aug 24, 2018 - Ibb Province, Yemen - People wearing masks celebrate the Eid al-Adha festival at Shirah village in Ibb Province, Yemen, on Aug. 24, 2018.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Oct 8, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - Children hold flowers as they attend a commemoration for the victims on the second anniversary of a 2016 funeral hall airstrike in Sanaa.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
May 5, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - A malnourished girl lies on a bed at a hospital in Sanaa. The three-year long civil war and ongoing military intervention have not only caused destruction to Yemen's infrastructure but made people less resilient to face hardships in life, creating a humanitarian crisis and pushing the country into the brink of famine, with an estimated 385,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition, thus putting them at heightened risk of acute diarrhea and cholera, according to the UN agencies.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Oct 1, 2018 - Hajjah Province, Yemen - A doctor checks a malnourished girl at a hospital in Hajjah province.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Sep 17, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - A man carries a bottle of petrol at a station in Sanaa. Sanaa streets appeared almost empty of movement due to unprecedented severe shortage of fuel following the collapse of peace talks in Geneva on Sept. 8, and the government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition warplanes advancing into the edges of rebel-held Red Sea port city of Hodeidah. The port in Hodeidah is the entry point of about 70 percent of the country's food, medicines, aid and fuel.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Oct 10, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - A celebration is held to mark the 1962 revolution against the Imamate regime in northern Yemen and the end of the British colonialism in the south.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
Oct 18, 2018 - Sanaa, Yemen - Hala Majed Oqbah (R) and her cousin Aradah Mohammed Oqbah take a rest while they try out prosthetic limbs at a UNICEF rehabilitation center in Sanaa. The girls both lost one leg in an airstrike this year while they were playing outside their house in Ibb province. Aerial attacks and street fighting took hold of most of Yemen in 2015 and put millions of civilians, especially children, in danger. Between March 2015 and August this year, more than 6,500 children have been confirmed killed or injured, according to statistics from UNICEF.
© Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire
