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April 13, 2017

U.N.: Famine in Yemen, African Nations "Becoming an Inevitability"
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The United Nations warned Wednesday the risk of mass starvation is
rapidly rising in Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan. U.N.
spokesperson Adrian Edwards said a preventable humanitarian catastrophe
is "fast becoming an inevitability."

Adrian Edwards: "The risk of mass deaths from starvation among
populations in the Horn of Africa, in Yemen and Nigeria, is growing.
This warning is in light of the drought situations that you've been
hearing about, that are also affecting many neighboring countries, and a
funding shortfall that has become so severe that an avoidable
humanitarian crisis in the region, possibly worse than that, in case of
the Horn of Africa, of 2011, is fast becoming an inevitability."

Earlier this year, the U.N. appealed for $4.4 billion to prevent famine,
but has received only about one-fifth of those funds. The U.N. warning
came as a group of 55 U.S. lawmakers wrote to Donald Trump warning the
president needs congressional approval if he seeks to expand U.S.
support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign and blockade of Yemen.


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