AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A top U.N. official says the devastating five-year civil war in Yemen has knocked the country back 20 years in terms of development and access to education.
Yemen was already the Arab world’s poorest nation before the war, which has killed tens of thousands of people. In 2014, rebels known as Houthis took over the capital, Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention that’s ground to a stalemate.
Achim Steiner, U.N. Development Program administrator, told The Associated Press on Monday that “Yemen has lost… 20 years of development.”
He says: “Thousands of schools are closed, millions of children aren’t able to attend school, missing a generation of education.”
He warns that one in every three Yemenis are at risk of starving to death, out of a population of 30 million.
