UN's Egeland 'Shocked to the Bones' by Unprecedented 'Man-Made' Famine in Yemen

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Nearly seven million people have been left by the international community to starve in war-torn Yemen, Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General and adviser to the UN special envoy for Syria on humanitarian issues Jan Egeland said following the visit to the country.

"I am shocked to my bones by what I have seen and heard here in war- and hunger- stricken Yemen. The world is letting some 7 million men, women and children slowly but surely, be engulfed by unprecedented famine. It is not a drought that is at fault. This preventable catastrophe is man-made from A to Z," Egeland said as quoted on the Norwegian Refugee Council website.

The Saudi-led and Western-backed military coalition has threatened to attack the port of Hudaydah, the main humanitarian lifeline in the country, Egeland added, stressing that this was something that could worsen the situation even further.

Yemen's civil war between the internationally recognized government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi movement backed by army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh erupted in March 2015. Shortly after the outbreak of the conflict, the Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf countries launched airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request.

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) characterizes the situation in Yemen as "the largest humanitarian crisis in the world," with 18.8 million people in need of humanitarian or defense assistance, including 10.3 million who require immediate aid to save or sustain their lives. According to the OCHA, the 2017 Yemen Response Plan is only 14.4 percent funded.