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.
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.
-
Scorching hot sauces that pack a punchThe Week Recommends The best sauces to tingle your lips and add a fiery kick to your food
-
Syria’s strange post-Assad electionThe Explainer Sunday’s limited vote ‘suited the phase Syria is undergoing’, says interim president
-
Why did the China spying case collapse?Today’s Big Question Unwillingness to call China an ‘enemy’ apparently scuppered espionage trial
-
Russia is ‘helping China’ prepare for an invasion of TaiwanIn the Spotlight Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
-
Interpol arrests hundreds in Africa-wide sextortion crackdownIN THE SPOTLIGHT A series of stings disrupts major cybercrime operations as law enforcement estimates millions in losses from schemes designed to prey on lonely users
-
Gaza genocide: will UN ruling change anything?Today's Big Question Commission of inquiry’s findings ‘give unprecedented weight’ to genocide claims
-
Why ‘anti-Islam’ bikers are guarding Gaza aid sitesIn The Spotlight Members of Infidels MC, who regard themselves as modern Crusaders, among private security guards at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites
-
UN votes to end Lebanon peacekeeping missionSpeed Read The Trump administration considers the UN's Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to be a 'waste of money'
-
China is silently expanding its influence in American citiesUnder the Radar New York City and San Francisco, among others, have reportedly been targeted
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctionsThe Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
The return of the Houthis: violence in the Red SeaIn the Spotlight The Houthis are back with their strongest attack yet
