Armies of Liberation

Over 19000 foreigners worked in Yemen in 2007
SABA

[06 March 2009]
SANA’A, March 06 (Saba) – Newly-issued statistics have showed the number of foreigners who worked in 2007 in Yemen had reached 19155, including 15734 males and 3421 females, while they were 14111 workers in 2006.

The official statistic, issued by the government-run Central Statistical Organisation, explained that Yemen absorbed by the end of 2007 at last 400 Omani workers, 220 Saudi workers, ten UAE workers, seven Kuwaitis and ten workers from both Qatar and Bahrain.

“There were more than 16000 Arabs worked in Yemen in 2007, including 4947 Iraqis, 3082 Egyptians, 1398 Jordanians, 1976 Palestinians, 1506 Sudanese workers, 1125 Somali workers, 947 Syrians, 281 Libyans, 280 Lebanese workers, 160 Moroccans and 80 workers were from both Tunisia and Algeria”, numbered the statistics.

“About 6862 foreigners worked in scientific and caring areas, while 4534 were technicians as the same fields. Meanwhile, 2027 foreigners operated as directors of public and business administrations, followed by more than 1847 workers were engineers. More than 3885 foreigners worked in the fields of sales, services, agriculture, breeding birds and handcrafts”.

The statistics mentioned that the local private sectors embraced 10417 workers and oil companies employed 3613 workers, while universities and education sectors engaged 1611 foreigners, up 1200 were in investment sector and over 2307 foreigners worked for other bodies.

Yemen Post
Security forces in Aden released on Saturday members of the Labor Union Committee who were arrested at the Aden Container Terminal over the strike that was held by Aden port workers.

They were freed after a week in custody by the governors order.

However, the workers at the Aden Container Terminal have been striking for eight straight days in protest on feared injustice that they may have after the station was handed over to DP World.

They claim they know nothing about the agreement under which the terminal was taken over by the DP world and can’t decide over issues that concern them.

The workers have launched stages since the agreement was signed early this month, describing the deal as unfair and harms the interests of the whole country.

YO

Workers at the port of Aden have gone on strike in protest over new contracts issued by Dubai Ports World’s (DPW), the port’s new administration, said sources at the workers syndicate on Monday.

More than 90 per cent of the 600 workers at the ports of Caltex and Al Mualla have been on the strike since last Saturday, said workers representative Abdu Rabu Majda.

The strike came about one week after DPW began to operate the port of Aden following an agreement signed last July between the Yemeni government and DPW.

“The main reason behind the strike was the new contracts, which gave DPW the right to sack any worker. It also put all workers on six month probation,” Majda told the Yemen Observer.

Most of the 600 workers did not agree to the new contracts and went on strike, he said.

About seven workers chosen to represent their peers in negotiations with DPW and Yemeni authorities were arrested by security forces in Aden the first day of the strike. However Aref Al Muhairi, Director General of DPW, denied any problem at the port, and denied the implementation of new work conditions, saying the strike did not affect work at the port.

He said work stopped only for three hours at the beginning of the strike. “And within 48 hours everything will be as it was, we are operating 45 ports, and we know what we are doing,” Al Muhairi told the Yemen Observer.

“There is nothing new in the contracts, they were under discussions for four months with the Yemeni government,” he said. “For those who do not like to work with us, it’s up to them, they can go wherever they like,” he added.

There’s been labor problems at the port of Aden for over a year. News Yemen

ADEN, NewsYemen

More than 500 workers in the Aden Containers Terminal (ACT) resumed Sunday a general strike in protest to an agreement signed between the government and the Dubai Ports International Company (DPI) to operate the ACT.

Workers said the agreement does not care about them and their position is not defined. They expressed fears being fired by the DPI administration or being rights-deprived.

Board chairman of the Gulf of Aden Ports Company, key partner of DPI in operating the ACT, Mohammad Eyfan, said it is not the business of the government to solve the workers’ problems anymore after it had handed overt the ACT to DPI. Eyfan described the worker’s strike as “mess” and that DPI is able to dissolve the problem of workers as DPI has experiences in 43 terminals around the world.

Workers suspended the strike on Saturday after the deputy governor of Aden, the Social Affairs and Labor Office in Aden and the office of the General Authority for Aden Free Zones promised them to discuss their requests and find satisfactory solutions.

DPI has not offered any statement on the strike until writing this report.

More, there hasn’t been a lot of coverage.

Yemen Post
As soon DP World, Aden-Dubai Company for Ports Development, announced officially last Thursday taking over management operations in Aden Container Terminal, the containers terminal workers started a comprehensive strike within the terminal premises. (Read on …)

Meanwhile Port workers are on strike.

YahooDUBAI (AFP) – The Emirati DP World group said on Thursday it has officially taken over container operations at the Yemeni port of Aden in a joint venture partnership with the Yemen Gulf of Aden Port Corporation.

“The agreement includes the lease of both Aden Container Terminal and of nearby Ma’alla Container Terminal, and a commitment by the joint venture to invest around 220 million dollars in further developing the port,” it said in a statement. (Read on …)

There’s massive corruption in the Heath and Medicine Ministry. A lot of donated and state funded drugs and equipment gets stolen from the ministries shelves. A real doctors union could put some pressure to increase health care standards. But no, what’s been produced is another clone. Similarly, if its impossible to get even a fair union vote, what do we think of the upcoming Parliamentary vote?

YO
The Yemen Observer recently published an article about the results of elections to the Doctors Syndicate of the Capital-Secretariat Branch during a subsidiary meeting on October 16. The purpose of these elections was to choose an administrative authority for the syndicate. Yet oddly enough, another meeting was held October 30 to conduct new elections to choose the administrative authority of the same Yemeni Doctors Syndicate of the Capital-Secretariat branch.

Last week in a simple hall used for wedding ceremonies, the first sub-conference of the Yemeni Doctors Syndicate of the Capital-Secretariat branch elected Dr. Mohammed al-Surmi as a Chairman of the syndicate. His election took place in the presence of a large number of Yemeni doctors. Yet, the first sub-conference of the Yemeni Doctors Syndicate of the Capital-Secretariat branch was again held in the Al-Shawqani Hall of the Policemen Faculty to elect a new leader and administrative authority. (Read on …)

Yemen Observer:

However mature and well-educated they may be, women in Yemen still do not enjoy equality status with men. This is largely due to social traditions that still regard women as minors needing help and support, said a paper on women and tribal traditions in Yemen.

Women’s roles largely remain confined to giving birth, raising children and caring for the home and family, said the paper which was presented by researcher Dr. Afaf Al Haimi in a symposium held in Sana’a this week on the political role of tribes in Yemen, Jordan and Iraq.

“Education for women is not regarded as essential, especially in rural areas where women generally work about 16 hours per day on farms, in houses and gathering water,” said Al Haimi.

The rate of illiteracy among women in rural areas is as high as 75.7 percent and 40.5 percent in the urban areas, she said.

The gap between male and female education is 76 girls for every 100 boys, but in the high classes the number of girl’s decreases. At this level, there are only 44 female students for every 100 male students, she said.

The researcher also noted that there is a high drop out rate for girls at nearly every level of education. Girls generally drop out of schools because of early marriage, and because the prevailing culture does not stress female education. Also, housework, especially in rural areas and family traditions, often prevent women from leaving the home, the researcher said.

In government institutions, the researcher said, the number of female employees is around 90,464 compared to 440,061 men.

The researcher also criticized Yemen’s educational curriculum, saying it discriminates against women by focusing solely on what are typically regarded as male virtues- heroism and success, and it stresses the power of men.

She said the country’s political parties do nothing to help women. These parties are strongly affected by the country’s tribal culture which looks at women as inferior, the researcher concluded.

YJS dispute about admission of new members delays elections, Yemen Post

The Editor in Chief of Al-Ray Al’am (Public Opinion) newspaper Kamal Al-Olfi revealed that his newspaper’s office was set into fire by anonymous elements last Friday.

Al-Olfi mentioned in a press release that the fire was casued by petrol, which was poured outside the office’s door, therefore, setting the entire office on fire, hinting some of the office equipments were destroyed completely.

Stressing that the paper will not change its stance, Al-Olfi accused corruption forces of standing behind the incident especially when his paper has been launching wide campaigns to criticize corruption and corrupt officials.

In its recent issues, the paper attacked the Minister of Local Administration Abdul Qader Ali Hilal and a number of commercial institutions.

For its part, Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) described the incident to be a dangerous development targeting independent newspapers. It also considered this incident to be a new way for intimidating the independent media.

The syndicate demanded Interior Ministry to launch a prompt investigation into the circumstances of the incident and to reveal those who were behind it.

In related news, YJS will hold elections next October to vote for a new council. Though these elections were supposed be conducted last June, political differences over admitting new members among the syndicate’s affiliates pushed the syndicate’s presidency to delay the elections.

Government study shows 30000 children working in 8 Yemeni provinces

SANA’A, Aug. 15 (Saba) – A recent study has shown that 30000 children working in the streets of eight Yemeni provinces.

According to the study, prepared by the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood in cooperation with the Arab Council for Childhood and Development, the majority of street children are aged between 6 -14 years and the rate of male children reached 70 per cent.

The official study said that the causes of the emergence of street children in the capital Sana’a, Aden, Taiz, Hajjah, Hodeida, Saada, Dhamar and Hadhramout were poverty, unemployment, family disintegration and parental absence due to divorce or death.

The study also pointed out that family disputes, violence against women, mistreatment of children, domestic migration and lack of social services were other causes of the phenomenon.

The study mentioned that the street children work as street vendors, cars washers, cleaners and beggars in addition to working in markets, restaurants, laundries and furnaces.

According to the study, diseases affecting the street children included malaria, diarrhea, various infections, diabetes, anemia, pains of spinal and back, liver and skin diseases and headaches and stomach pains.

Yemen Observer:

Unemployment in Yemen currently affects around 44 percent of people that have completed middle school and 54 percent of those holding bachelor degrees. It has thus become one of the main obstacles and an important challenge for the national development of the Republic of Yemen, as well as a priority in the Government’s political agenda, both at the regional and the international level. Amat al-Razaq Hummad, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor stressed these facts during the launch of the National Strategy workshop for held in Sana’a last Tuesday. (Read on …)

ISA:

Text of report by London-based independent newspaper Al-Quds al- Arabi website on 17 July
[Report by Khalid al-Hammadi in Sanaa: "Analysts consider the formation of the Virtue Commission in Yemen as a sign of the weakness of the state or intended to divert the attention of the public away from its suffering prior to the parliamentary elections; the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue or the 'Yemeni Al- Mutawa'ah' declares war on prostitution, alcoholic beverages, drugs, and child trade"]

The commission to protect virtue in Yemen held its first conference in Sanaa yesterday. The conference -that was held with official backing -was attended by a large gathering of senior religious scholars and intellectuals from various parts of Yemen with a noticeable absence of the leaders of the opposition parties, including the Islamist Reform Party. The conferees decided to change the name of the commission from the Virtue Commission to the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue thus becoming identical in character and tasks to the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice that is popularly known as the “Al- Mutawa’ah”. (Read on …)

Saleh is celebrating 30 years in power.

Sahwa Net –Demonstrations held on Thursday in Dhala and Lahj provinces demanded to cancel celebrations in which the authorities force citizens to attend to, according to their descriptions .

The demonstrators described marking the July 17th as a two parts behavior and exclusion policy. Sahwa Net correspondent in Dhala province said that slogans demanding to recognize the south issue end of prosecuting southern activists and release political prisoners were raised in the demonstrations. “Demonstrators stressed the continuation of peaceful struggle until all citizens’ rights are met” added he. Furthermore, demonstrations held Thursday in Lahj province denounced marking the July 17 as a national occasion, considering such act a devotion of division language.

On the other hand, the Joint Meeting Parties in Mahweet condemned forcing employees to attend the celebration of the president’s 30th anniversary of assuming power. Yemen’s president Saleh took power in north on 17 July 1978.

Yemen Observer

Calling upon the government to pay particular attention to the social and political dangers of unemployment was the aim of a workshop held last week in Aden. It was conducted by the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) Developing Center for Childhood and Youth (DCCY) in cooperation with the Canadian Center for Development of Aden, titled ‘Unemployment among youths, reality and solutions.’

Participants asked the NGO to do surveys in order to give real statistics about unemployment in all governorates of Yemen. They asked only non-government sources because they will give real numbers and facts about unemployment which will not be done by government organization.

Unemployment in Yemen has reached 34 percent, according to a report in 2006 issued by the Ministry of Planning and International Corporation. The report stated that less than half of working age young people are unemployed. Unemployment is on the raise according to the same report. There were around 188,000 graduates of 2006 while the government can only employ 16,000. The reports said that the number of graduates will increase during the coming years – and unemployment along with it.
(Read on …)

AM

Almotamar.net – Hundreds of Yemeni journalists intend staging a massive sit-in in front of the headquarters of the Yemini Journalists Syndicate (YJS) in the capital Sana’a on Saturday. The sit-in comes in protest not deciding their applications for the union membership and in condemnation of what they have described as double standard the YJS councils in dealing with them.

Almotamar.net learned that hundreds of journalists from different governorates intend to erect a camp in front of the YJS headquarters in condemnation o f the unprofessional behaviour of the Journalists syndicate in dealing with its members and its message in general and in protest to depriving them of the union’s membership.

More good news

Yemen Observer:

A large number state employees numbering 9,600 were fired by the Ministry of Civil Service for failing to give their automated fingerprints on time, said Minister of Civil Service Hamoud al-Soufi last Tuesday.

In a statement to Yemen satellite TV channel, al-Soufi said the decision was taken after the different ministries and state institutions affirmed those employees have over passed the legal period of absence and for not come to give their electronic fingerprints on time. The fired employees are believed to be either ghost employees or ones that had dual jobs and did not want to be discovered they had more than a job.

Also, in its session held last Tuesday, the cabinet ministers approved the decision of the Ministry of Civil Service to adopt the new DERMALOG MultiFinger Biometrics system for payments of all the state employees across the country starting from July 2008. The system will also be used for the employees daily signing in. (Read on …)

Yemen Times

SANA’A, May 1 — Yemen is marking International Labor Day, also called May Day, by celebrating the occasion in its capital city of Sana’a today.

Mohammed Al-Jidri, head of the General Union for Yemeni Laborers, told the Yemen Times that more than 100 workers selected from all governorates will be awarded at the celebration at the Cultural Center.

He noted that each governorate will celebrate the occasion by rewarding several distinguished workers, adding, “Even companies will celebrate the day, with 4,000 workers being rewarded.”

According to him, Yemen has more than 10 million laborers between the ages of 15 and 64 working in the private, public and agricultural sectors. (?) Yemen’s estimated population is 21 million, 45.9 percent of whom are under age 15. (Read on …)

Not counting agricultural work

Mareb

A governmental study reveals that about 700 thousands Yemeni children between 4-14 years old are working in streets of main cities because the poverty.

The Central System for Counting in Yemen, International Labour Organization, Social Fund for Development, and UNICEF are preparing to launch a wide field survey for child labour.

The survey aims to create a database clarifying the size of this phenomenon in Yemen which reports say it is increasing during the last years because of the deterioration of living status and the spread of the poverty.

The recent study issued by Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour said that the rate of child labor in Yemen last year increased from 400 thousand working children in 2000 to 700 thousand children working in jobs that do not fit with ages.

The study reveals that about 2 million children drop out of schools.

YT

SANA’A, April 20 — More than six percent of Yemenis have dropped below the poverty line due to rising staple food prices, joining the 40 percent of Yemenis already living on less than $2 per day, Yemen’s country director for the World Food Program, or WFP, said at a press conference Saturday.

Additionally, there are few viable methods available to the average Yemeni family to help cope with the recent increased risk of starvation.

“Coping mechanisms are limited to skipping essential needs, so it either affects the food basket or health and education,” said Mohamed El-Kouhene, Yemen’s WFP country director, adding, “If we don’t do something now, Millennium Development Goals will be set back 70 years.”

In order to feed their families, those Yemenis living below the poverty line will have to either skip meals, decrease their intake of fruits, vegetables and meat, or discontinue medical visits and schooling for their children, he noted.

The state of the nation’s food instability, which has increased due to price hikes, has become more precarious as the $28 million gap between the WFP’s budget and Yemen’s need continues to grow.

Although the Yemeni government has been attempting reforms in water management and increasing agricultural output, these efforts aren’t enough to stave off hunger for the majority of the population, as both rural and urban residents are affected.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick urged developed nations to contribute the promised $500 million in emergency donations to the WFP in a press statement made on April 9. “This isn’t just a question of short-term needs, as important as they are,” Zoellick stated to the Associated Press. “This is about ensuring that future generations don’t pay a price too.”

Between June 2007 and March 2008, the price of basic cereals has increased 55 percent worldwide, according to El-Kouhene.

A major factor contributing to the global rise in grain prices are energy and oil prices, which affect everything from food production to processing to transportation.

With oil prices reaching new heights, El-Kouhene expects food prices to increase as well, climbing for several months before stabilizing.

While there have been reports of field workers bribing beneficiaries or stealing food, El-Kouhene says the WFP has a strong monitoring system, noting that when commodities disappeared from one WFP warehouse last year, they were restituted quickly.

Other problems, such as water shortage and using arable land for qat production, are under government review, but the 46 percent of Yemenis living in dire poverty don’t have the luxury of waiting for solutions.

Three million kids working

Al-Sahwa

Alsahwa.net

March 31, 2008 – A recent statistic prepared by Child Labor Office in 6 Yemeni governorates estimated child labor about 189000 children.

The study made clear that most children work in farming;38,000 in Ibb, 29,000 in Sana’a, 27,000 in Dhamar, 28,000 in Amran, 20,000 in Hodaida.

An official report issued recently by the Shoura Council pointed out that the child labor growth in Yemen is 3 percent.

,indicating that child labor extensively centers in the field of agriculture by 92%, while 4.8% work in services , 2.5% of them are non-professional employment.

The report also explained that children work for over 17 hours a day and receive low wages.

According to a statistics prepared in 2003, the number of child labor reached 3,2 million children. Law prohibits child labor in some occupations.

According to Yemen’s law, the established minimum age for employment is 15 years in contrary to the international law which identifies that with 18 years.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor estimated in 2000 that 400,000 children work in occupations which do not fit their ages and about 2,000,000

Yemen Observer

Yemeni children under one year of age are especially prone to malnutrition, according to a Sana’a University study conducted by a group of researchers at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science.

The study was conducted on child patients younger than ten years of age from a number of governmental hospitals in Sana’a. “This research was aimed to assess and quantify the magnitude of inequalities in under-ten child malnutrition, particularly those ascribable to socio-economic status and gastroenteritis, to consider the policy implications of these findings,” said Dr. Ubada Jum’a, one of the researchers involved in the study.

About 53 percent of Yemen’s population,with more than 24,000 Yemeni children under the age of five, are estimated to suffer from malnutrition, according to officials of the Country Program, run by the United Nations World Food Programme in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Health and Population and the Ministry of Education. The Country Program is expected to be implemented in Yemen during the next five years.

The World Health Organization defines malnutrition as the cellular imbalance between supply of nutrients and energy and the body’s demand for them to ensure proper growth, maintenance and specific bodily functions.

A child becomes malnourished because of illness in combination with inadequate food intake. Insufficient access to food, poor health services, the lack of safe water and sanitation and inadequate child and maternal care are underlying causes.

More than 1.1 billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water and some 2.9 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation. This results in the spread of infectious diseases, including childhood diarrhea, which in turn are major causes of malnutrition.

Malnutrition contributes to over 6 million deaths of children each year of the nearly 12 million deaths among children under five in developing countries. Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.

Poor eating habits or lack of available food may lead to malnutrition. Malnutrition occurs in children who are either undernourished or overnourished. Children who are overnourished may become overweight or obese, which may lead to long-term health problems and social stress. Malnutrition can occur because of the lack of a single vitamin in the diet, or it can be because a person isn’t getting enough food.

Malnutrition also occurs when adequate nutrients are consumed in the diet, but one or more nutrients are not digested or absorbed properly.

The Yemeni study found that most cases of malnourishment, 44 percent are found in children less than six months of age with about 33 percent of children between 7 months and one year old are suffering from malnutrition. Children between one to five years of age suffer less from malnutrition than other age groups, with a rate of 22 percent, the study found.

According to the study, most of the malnourished children, 76 percent, come from various rural areas, while just 25 percent are found to be living in cities. Since the highest rate of malnourished children is found in rural areas, this can be interpreted and being caused by the parents’ lack of education. It was found that 89 percent of the mothers were not educated, while just 3 percent of the fathers were highly educated.

The family’ socioeconomic condition plays an important role in affecting children’s nutrition, as about 33 percent of affected children were living in a low socioeconomic state.

The study noted that about 23 percent of malnourished children suffered from respiratory problems after delivery and 29 percent of them had gastrointestinal tract (GIT) troubles. Moreover, it is important to note that just 45 percent of the children were breast feeding, while 33 percent were fed with artificial milk and 22 percent were fed with both, the study said.

“It’s also interesting to know that more than 40 percent of malnourished children had stopped breast feeding before reaching one year of age. This may be the main cause of malnutrition and inadequate nutrient intake,” said Dr. Jum’a.

Vaccination is very important for protecting children from many diseases. The study also found that 50 percent of the children did not receive regular vaccinations.

Gastroenteritis was found to be the most prevalent cause of malnutrition in Yemen as about 64 percent of cases were found to be due to gastroenteritis and 22 percent were due to abnormal dietary intake. These causes have a correlation with breast feeding and the family’s low education and poor socioeconomic conditions.

Yemen is one of the least developed countries in the world. Its widespread nutritional deficit is likely the result of Yemen’s extremely low national income, as well as the poor state of education in the country. The fact that roughly 50 percent of families’ income goes towards qat is also a factor. In 2005 the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranked Yemen 151st out of 177 in the list of countries on the Human Development Index.

According to the UN World Food Programme, almost half the people in Yemen do not have enough to eat. About 40 percent of Yemen’s population of 22 million lives below the poverty line on less than $2 per day. Moreover, opportunities to receive education and health care are limited, especially in rural areas, where 88 percent of women and 36 percent of men are illiterate, the report shows.

The World Bank has noted that the average annual income was only $450 in 2003, and Yemen’s unemployment rate was close to 40 percent in that same year. “Malnutrition is one of the main challenges in Yemen, where 46 percent – almost half – of the children are underweight,” said Naseem Ur-Rehman, communications coordinator at UNICEF’s Sana’a office. “The magnitude of the problem is huge, as underweight children are particularly vulnerable to diseases, compounding the issue.”

Health indicators also reveal other serious problems. The number of mothers who die during childbirth is increasing faster than in the world’s most underdeveloped countries. In 2005, the infant mortality rate (for babies under 1 year of age) was 76 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to UNICEF. The rate for children under five was 102.

The study’s researchers think that prevention of malnutrition in children starts with an emphasis on prenatal nutrition and good prenatal care. Health care providers should emphasize the importance of breastfeeding in the first year of life.

In addition to the promotion of breastfeeding, health care providers should counsel parents on the appropriate introduction of nutritious supplemental foods, the researchers said.

The study, supervised by Dr. Mohammed al-Naeb who is an assistant professor in the Community Medicine Department, recommended paying more attention to those children who are at risk of nutritional deficiency. According to the study, they should be referred to a registered dietitian or other nutritional professional for a complete nutritional assessment and dietary counseling.

The study was conducted by Ubada Jum’a, Qutaiba Lutfi, and Amer Attia.

Yemen Post

Yemeni Parliament approved amending the law numbered 25 of 1991 concerning the insurances as obligatorily put pension age at 60 and while the pension age for women was optionally fixed for 55.

The amendments allow the husband to have both his pension and his wife; however, it did not allow him to have more than one in case he is married to more than one wife and he has the right to select which pension to have with his.

SANA’A, March 22 (Saba) - UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Sigrid Kaag confirmed on Saturday the UNICEF’s interest to support plans and programs of Yemeni government to improve children and women’s status in Yemen.

Upon her arrival to Sana’a on Friday in an official visit, Kaag said that she would discuss with Yemeni officials assistance the UNICEF may provide for Yemen to improve children conditions and their health and education future.

The UNICEF really care for Yemeni children, she said, adding that we seek to reduce children labor in Yemen, which reached 60 percent among children under age 18.

Hungry working and sick

Ramzeah al-Aryani, Head of the Federation of Yemeni Women, said that around 84,000 children under the age of five die annually in Yemen due to malnutrition or lack of adequate health care. This figure means that about 250 children die every day. Forty percent of children in Yemen are suffering from anemia, weight loss and nutritional deficiencies. These problems exist as a consequence of global price increases which causes untold suffering for children and mothers.