Weighing just nine kilograms at 10 years old, Hassan Merzam Muhammad is so emaciated by the severe malnourishment plaguing hundreds of thousands of Yemeni children like him that he can no longer walk.

Fears of famine in Yemen are resurfacing, the United Nations says.

A U.N. report Wednesday said Yemen was returning to "alarming" levels of food insecurity.

"We're thirsty, we can't even get water," said Zaina Muhammad, mother to Hassan and his six siblings.

Famine has never been officially declared in Yemen but U.N. warnings in late 2018 of impending famine prompted an aid ramp-up after which the World Food Programme fed up to 13 million a month.

Displaced five times by war, Hassan's family now live in rural Hajjah, one of the poorest regions, with no income.

Nurse Makieh al-Aslami, where Hassain is being treated says "Hassan has no health problems. His problem is hunger."

The number of malnourished under-fives could rise by 20% to 2.4 million by year end on funding shortfalls, UNICEF has said.

A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to restore the Yemeni government ousted from power in the capital Sanaa by the Iran-aligned Houthis.

Now 80% of the population relies on humanitarian aid.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/7218085/yemen-food-shortages-un/

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