130 children are dying every day in Yemen from starvation and disease

Women wait in a hospital hallway with children suspected to be infected with cholera.

(Image credit: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images)

published 16 November 2017

An estimated 130 children or more die every day in Yemen from starvation or disease, the international aid group Save the Children reported late Wednesday. By the end of the year, an estimated 50,000 children will have died from the "preventable" causes, Save the Children's Yemen director, Tamer Kirolos, told The Independent.

That number means "more than a hundred mothers [are] grieving for the death of a child, day after day," Kirolos added.

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An estimated 385,000 children in Yemen are additionally suffering from severe acute malnutrition, The Telegraph reports. A blockade on Yemen's ports by Saudi Arabia made food in the famine-struck nation even scarcer, and Save the Children warns that the numbers reported Wednesday could already be outdated since they were gathered before Saudi Arabia's maneuver. The kingdom said Monday it would ease the blockade after extreme international pressure.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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