A heart breaking report by a BBC team lead by Irish journalist and BBC war correspondent, Fergal Keane, on the tragic human cost of the long running war in Yemen is receiving widespread coverage and plaudits across social media today.
The report, televised for the first time on the BBC News at 10 yesterday, highlighted several emaciated toddlers and children who are on the verge of death due to malnutrition.
#Yemen: A journey into the hell of war.@fergalkeane47 #BBCNewsTen https://t.co/gTBb3wwxr9 pic.twitter.com/gkhlJ2L28E
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) December 6, 2016
The featured children are part of the 14m Yemeni’s whose daily lives now revolve around finding food following a Saudi Arabian bombing campaign which has destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure and road network and which has seen malnutrition rates jump by 200% in just two years.
#Yemen Ghaleb Shoei carries sick child at IDP camp in Hajja. A people's tragedy on BBCNewsAtTen tonight pic.twitter.com/Erue9BwGSg
— Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) December 6, 2016
Feargal Keane's harowing report from Yemen #bbcr4today & follow-up interview with Mark Goldring #oxfam both pieces of exceptional journalism
— Martin Myers (@DrMartinMyers) December 7, 2016
Fergal Keane @fergalkeane47 is a powerful reporter: harrowing stuff on Yemen on @BBCr4today
— The Priest formerly known as Fr. Simon (@frsimon) December 7, 2016
The war in Yemen and what it's doing to the children touching report by Fergal Keane https://t.co/H5WeA3ZXcn
— Jeannie Assad (@JeannieAssad1) December 7, 2016
Shocking images of child malnutrition in Yemen reported on @BBCWorld by Fergal Keane. Malnutrition up by 200% in 2 yrs #heartbreaking
— Debbie Flaxman 💙 (@dflaxman) December 6, 2016
Keane’s report has highlighted a conflict which has been largely ignored by the international community and which has been overshadowed, despite its human cost, by wars in Syria and Iraq.
An image like that of baby Ibrahim, no matter how many wars you've covered, is powerfully shocking and shaming. @fergalkeane47 in Yemen. pic.twitter.com/XMZSBi59jg
— Edward Lawrence (@EP_Lawrence) December 7, 2016
Responding to the ongoing crisis the senior UN official in the country, Jamie McGoldrick, told the BBC that aid agencies were "exasperated at the international response".
"The politics of the situation has overcome the humanity. The humanity doesn’t work anymore here. The world has turned a blind eye to what’s happening in Yemen..."
Part two of Keane’s report - looking at the causes of the crisis - will be shown on the BBC’s News at 10 tomorrow.
Keane’s harrowing first hand account of what he encountered in filming his report can be read on the BBC website here
Yemen: a few months away from running out of food