Starving Yemenis eat leaves to survive amid war: Report
Tehran (KNA) - Many Yemeni families reportedly have nothing to eat but leaves as a humanitarian crisis caused by Saudi Arabia's deadly bombing campaign on the impoverished state reaches a critical stage.
The Associated Press reported that people in the Aslam district of Yemen's northwestern Hajjah Province rely on leaves from the local vine, known as Halas in Arabic or Arabian Wax Leaf in English, due to worsening hunger.
Mothers, the report said, pick the leaves, then wash and boil them into a sour, acidic green paste to stave off starvation.
According to local health figures, Aslam recorded one of Hajjah's highest jumps in the number of malnourished children, from 384 cases being treated in January, an additional 1,319 more came in over the next six months.
Additionally, Aslam's main health center has no pediatricians, electricity, oxygen cylinders and fuel for generators, the report said.
"Aslam is just another picture of Somalia," said Saleh al Faqih, a worker in a mobile Health Ministry clinic.
In the village of al-Mashrada, situated near Aslam, the mother of a 7-month-old girl, Zahra, is undernourished herself and is often unable to breastfeed her child.
Source: PressTV