NEW YORK (Dispatches) – A UN official on Thursday warned of the effect of the situation in Yemen on women and girls, Anadolu reports.
“The crisis has a disproportionate and devastating impact on women and girls. They have suffered from systematic discrimination and exclusion for decades,” Tom Fletcher, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator told the Security Council.
“It is a grim picture,” he said, adding about 9.6 million women and girls are in “severe need” of life-saving humanitarian assistance as they face hunger, violence and a collapsing health care system.
“There is no sign of progress for them,” he stressed.
“It is, of course, for individual countries to decide how to spend their money. But it is the pace at which so much vital work has been shut down that adds to the perfect storm that we face.”
Fletcher said Yemen’s maternal mortality rate is “the highest” in West Asia, and 1.3 million pregnant women and new mothers are malnourished.
Additionally, 1.5 million girls are out of school, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and violence. The worsening lack of funds has already led to the closure of 22 safe spaces, depriving over 11,000 women and girls of critical services and support.
“As your funding for Yemen evaporates, the numbers in my next briefings will be worse,” warned Fletcher.
“What does that mean for the women and girls behind those numbers? More will die. More will be left with no choice but to adopt dangerous coping mechanisms: survival sex, begging, coerced prostitution, human trafficking, and selling their children.”
More than 6 million women and girls face “heightened risks” of abuse and exploitation, he said, stressing that 1.5 million girls in Yemen remain out of school.
Pledging to support women with whatever resources the UN has available, Fletcher said: “If this is not possible it would have serious impacts on communities already on the precipice of disaster.”
“Women and children, again, will bear the brunt,” he added.
Yemen remains mired in one of the world’s worst humanitarian and economic crises, fueled by nearly a decade of Saudi-led war on the country.
The war in Yemen has claimed over 150,000 lives and has led to one of the worst humanitarian crises globally, resulting in tens of thousands of additional deaths.