Yemen's humanitarian crisis
Over the past four years, the civil war in Yemen has claimed at least 10,000 lives, with experts estimating a much higher toll. The fighting, stoked by tribal conflicts and backed (on opposite sides) by Saudi Arabia and Iran, has pushed the country to the brink of famine, generating the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The executive director of the U.N.'s World Food Program, David Beasley, said Tuesday, December 4, 2018, that more that 12 million people suffer from "severe hunger."
The Mishqafa IDP camp
The conflict began with the takeover, by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, of the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen in 2014. The Saudi-led coalition went to war with the rebels the following March. Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, and the Houthis have fired long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia and targeted vessels in the Red Sea.
UNHCR says, of the 1,478 civilian casualties, 33 percent were women and children – a total of 217 women and children killed, and 268 wounded.
The Mishqafa IDP camp
On December 7, 2018, CBS News visited the Mishqafah camp in southern Yemen, which houses approximately 2,500 people, all of whom fled fighting elsewhere in the country.
The Mishqafa IDP camp
The people residing at the Mishqafah camp have always been poor, but now they are destitute, residing in rudimentary shelters made of tarpaulin and bits of wood. They have no access to proper medical care.
The Mishqafa IDP camp
The Ali family can't get help for their six-year-old daughter, who has a serious neurological problem. Just a few weeks ago, a child in the camp died of cholera.
The Mishqafa IDP camp
The sanitation at the camp is dangerously bad; there are only a few basic latrines. Most people use the fields, and the situation is worst for women, who, for modesty's sake, can only go out at night, alone in the dark.
The Mishqafa IDP camp
The people living at the Mishqafah camp do, however, have access to just enough food to survive. This is more than can be said for 14 million other Yemenis – the number of people that the United Nations says is at risk of serious hunger or starvation this winter.
The Mishqafa IDP camp
Earlier this year, UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, said there were more than 2 million internally displaced persons in Yemen.
The Mishqafa IDP camp
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer visiting a camp for displaced persons in southern Yemen.
The Mishqafa IDP camp
According to UNICEF, almost 80 percent of the Yemeni population (22.2 million people) is in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
The Mishqafa IDP camp
According to UNICEF, nearly 400,000 children in Yemen suffer from severe acute malnutrition.
Sadaq Hospital
A woman and child at the Sadaq (Friendship) Hospital in Aden, the temporary capital of Yemen.
Sadaq Hospital
According to Doctors Without Borders, more than half of Yemen's medical facilities have closed since the fighting began.
Sadaq Hospital
Last year the country was the site of the world's largest cholera epidemic.
Sadaq Hospital
Yemen's warring parties are meeting in Sweden for another attempt at talks aimed at halting their catastrophic war. U.N. officials say they don't expect rapid progress toward a political settlement, but hope for at least minor steps that would help to address Yemen's worsening humanitarian crisis.
For more see:
Complete CBS News coverage: Yemen's civil war
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Makeshift camp in rebel territory
Yemenis displaced from their homes in northern Yemen by the country's civil war surround CBS News senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer at a makeshift camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Hajjah, northwest of Sanaa, Yemen.
Nothing to eat but leaves
A displaced Yemeni woman shows a bowl of boiled leaves -- all that she and others at the makeshift al Guda camp in Hajjah, in Yemen's rebel-held north, could find to eat.
Nothing to eat but leaves
A bowl of boiled leaves, which passes for sustenance at the al Guda camp for internally displaced Yemeni civilians in Hajjah, in the country's rebel-held north. Desperate parents cook the leaves, eat them and feed them to their starving children even though they know it will cause diarrhea.
Life in the al Guda camp
Children watch as a young boy bows in prayer at the makeshift al Guda camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Hajjah, Yemen, northwest of the rebel-held capital Sanaa.
A mother mourns
Fatima Gobran Ali, 22, sits in the makeshift al Guda camp for people displaced by Yemen's civil war, in Hajjah, northwest Yemen, after losing her one-year-old son Nasser Hafed to malnutrition.
Starving in Sanaa
CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer visits a severely ill infant in the malnutrition ward at Asabayeen Hospital in Sanaa, rebel-held northern Yemen, Dec. 12, 2018.
Starving in Sanaa
An infant is treated in the malnutrition ward of the Asabayeen Hospital in Sanaa, in rebel-held northern Yemen, Dec. 12, 2018.
Starving in Sanaa
One of the youngest victims of Yemen's civil war, an infant is treated in the malnutrition ward at Asabayeen Hospital in rebel-held Sanaa, Dec. 12, 2018.
Starving in Yemen
A severely malnourished child is treated at the Asabayeen Hospital in Sanaa, northern Yemen, Dec. 12, 2018. The United Nations has warned that as many as 20 million Yemenis lack food, and a quarter of a million are already at risk of starvation.