250,000 Yemeni kids face starvation: UNICEF

“250,000 children today in Yemen are at the risk of dying or having lifelong consequences if we don’t act immediately,” said Gert Kapelari of the UNICEF.

"Close to sixty percent of Yemeni children under the age of five today are suffering from chronic malnutrition. That makes Yemen the country with the highest level of chronic malnutrition in the world after Afghanistan,” the UN official added.

    Aid agencies say more and more people in Yemen are finding it difficult to afford food because of unemployment and rising prices. Conflict and political instability have also greatly increased the number of internally displaced people who are now dependent on food aid.

Shortage of clean water, sanitation and foodstuffs has doubled the number of children affected by malnutrition in the country.

UNICEF has asked for USD 50 million in donations to be able to meet the children\'s urgent humanitarian needs in 2012.