The UN's top humanitarian chief has warned that Yemen is spiralling towards total collapse as famine and disease ravage the wartorn nation.
Stephen O'Brien blamed the crisis on the "inaction - whether due to inability or indifference - by the international community".
O'Brien told the UN Security Council: "Yemen now has the ignominy of being the world's largest food security crisis with more than 17 million people who are food insecure, 6.8 million of whom are one step away from famine.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Crisis is not coming, it is not even looming, it is here today.
"The people of Yemen are being subjected to deprivation, disease and death as the world watches."
O'Brien's remarks "reflected frustration with the Security Council's failure to pressure the warring sides in Yemen to pull back from the brink and engage in serious negotiations on ending the two-year war," AFP reports.
"More than 8,000 people - mostly civilians - have been killed and close to 44,500 others injured since the conflict escalated in March 2015," the BBC says.
Meanwhile an outbreak of cholera in April has led to 55,000 suspected cases so far and another 150,000 cases are expected over the next six months," Reuters says.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.