Humanitarian catastrophe unfolds in Yemen as world refuses to act

There are calls for Australia to urgently provide aid funding to Yemen, which is now classified as the world's worst humanitarian disaster and described by the UN as being "on the brink of famine".

Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill went to Yemen last year where she documented the plight of starving children.

We have heard a lot about lies, mistruths and fake news in recent weeks.

This week one story, one piece of very real news, should have been right at the top of the bulletins and in the newspaper headlines.

But you could be forgiven for missing this story completely.

It didn't make the big headlines, barely garnered any debate and seemed to disappear as soon as it was announced.

On Thursday, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres held a press conference in New York to issue an urgent warning that more than 20 million people in Yemen, north Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan were at risk of dying from starvation within the six months.

"We are facing a tragedy," he told reporters. "This is preventable if the international community takes decisive action."

Yemen is listed as the worst-affected country facing potential famine, where more than 7 million people require emergency food assistance.

Facing a generation of stunted children

When I was in Yemen last August, we witnessed kids starving to death, right there in the hospitals of the capital city, Sanaa.

I'll never forget the looks on the parents' faces. They were so ashamed and embarrassed — unable to afford the most basic food for their children who now lay in hospital on the verge of death, some with their stomachs bloated and others with their tiny ribs sticking out.

Seventeen-month-old Eissa's mum sat on the bed holding her lifeless son, tears streaming out of her eyes. We went back to that hospital the next day. Eissa's bed was empty. He had died overnight.

It's hard to believe the situation in Yemen has gotten so much worse since then.

Now the UN says there are more than 460,000 children like Eissa who are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

"While Yemen is being starved or is starving, there is nothing really that is actually taking place to actually fix it," Jamie McGoldrick, the UN's top aid official in Yemen, told me this week.

"What we are facing is a generation of young kids who are going to be stunted. They are never going to reach their full potential physically and intellectually, because of the importance of those early years and the right nutrition."

The difficult choices

The plight of children starving to death in Yemen was first reported around March last year.

Video and photos of this horrific phenomena has continued to be reported since then, despite the incredible difficulties facing journalists accessing the war-torn country.

But despite the overwhelming evidence, families across Yemen are continuing to watch their children die from a lack of food.

"These are stories of mothers who have to make stark choices," Mr McGoldrick told me.

"Where you either use your limited money to treat your sick child, and pay for medicine and transport them to the hospital, or you don't and that child dies and you then feed the two or three that you have."

It's clear the world knows this is happening but is refusing to act and is choosing to ignore what is happening in Yemen.

I asked Mr McGoldrick what should people who want to help do?

"I think raise their voice to their local politicians and parliament," he said.

"To try and create a worldview and world appreciation of the tragedy that is happening here in Yemen and push their government to give aid funding to the humanitarian crisis."

'One of the world's humanitarian crises'

While Australia has one of the highest incomes per capita in the world, our current spending on foreign aid is at an eight-year low.

Australia does not currently allocate any of its current foreign aid budget to Yemen.

And when you look at the numbers for sub-Saharan Africa our contribution there has dropped — from $117 million last year to $89 million this year.

This year, our contribution to the World Food Program, the UN agency responsible for getting food to starving people, was also cut by $7 million.

In December, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Australia will spend less on foreign aid in 2020 than it did in 2011.

There are now urgent calls for Australia to recognise these warnings on famine and urgently increase our foreign aid to the affected countries.

"What's happening in Yemen today is a humanitarian catastrophe," said Mat Tinkler, Save the Children Australia's director of policy and public affairs.

"It is one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, yet so far the Australian Government has committed no funding to help save lives there.

"We urge the Australian Government to step up and provide humanitarian aid to Yemen."

We can't say we didn't know what was happening in Yemen or north Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan.

We and the governments we elect have been put on notice.

What are we going to do about it?