Premature Twins Treated for Malnutrition in Aden as Fighting Displaces Families in Yemen
Seven-week-old twins from south-west Yemen are being treated for severe acute malnutrition at al-Sadaqah hospital in the port city of Aden, the BBC reported. The twins, Raghad Hassan and her brother Raad, were born prematurely as fighting intensified in Yemen's civil war between Houthi fighters and government forces.
Severe acute malnutrition is a life-threatening condition in which a child is not getting enough food to grow and stay healthy.
The twins' family of seven fled their village in the Kahboub mountains when the Houthis reached it, the BBC said, amid bombs, missiles and drone attacks. They walked for three days toward Aden before arriving at the hospital. The twins' father, Bajash Ali Sagir Hassan, is a shepherd, and their mother is named as Lina.
The father told the BBC that the twins were fed twice a day, and at times only water, after the war pushed up the price of baby milk.
The malnutrition unit the BBC visited has 22 beds, but only 13 patients are admitted at a time. The broadcaster reported that the shortfall is due to a lack of international funding, staff and equipment.
The wider crisis is large. The United Nations says around 800,000 people can no longer receive lifesaving aid, and more than 250,000 have been displaced since an informal ceasefire, an unwritten truce between the sides, collapsed in the summer, the BBC reported. The Houthis have advanced along the Red Sea coast and cut off Taiz, Yemen's third largest city. The internationally recognised government is fighting back with help from Saudi air strikes.
Earlier this autumn, the UN children's agency UNICEF reported a rise in acute malnutrition among children in Yemen as fighting intensified in September. On October 2, the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which feeds people in emergencies, said three in four families in parts of Yemen were going hungry. The agency also said displaced families arriving outside Aden and around Taiz had left everything behind and were arriving without water or food.
